Rotherham United: ‘Every league will be marred by Covid’ – Paul Warne

Warne knows what it is like to be at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak. Last season it effectively cost them their place in the Championship, so he has sympathy with counterparts weighing up whether to request a postponement.

The Omicron variant has taken hold of some members of the Millers’ coaching staff but as he spoke to the media yesterday morning, Warne was expecting a full squad for the trip to Cambridge United except for wing-back Mickel Miller, who complained of a sore groin before the win over Burton Albion.

But he knows that could change at any minute.

“I have had a couple of members of staff go down and as soon as it gets into the building you start panicking,” he admitted. “Wednesday was a day away from training but I got a call and I thought, ‘Oh no.’ I answered and just said ‘Tell me the bad news.’

“Fortunately it doesn’t seem like any players are symptomatic but I’m panicking I’ll get up Saturday morning to a text on my phone saying two or three players aren’t feeling good.”

This time last year Warne had to call games off because of infections.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “It’s not so much about the players you’ve got out, it’s more about the unknown. You don’t know who’s going to come in the next day with it.

“You have to go under an investigation that we had to pay for the privilege of.

“What I didn’t want to do was call a game off and them come back and they retrospectively say 17 players out wasn’t enough, we’ll deduct you six points.

“Some clubs suggested we were maybe trying to beat the system but it was anything but,” he added.

“At the end of this season every league will be marred by Covid. That’s hard because you’re being judged every week by fans who have no idea who’s struggling.”

Warne says it is difficult telling them.

“I like to think I’m pretty moral,” he said. “I don’t like to mislead or lie but I don’t like to share personal health information. Their kids might not know until they see it on Twitter.”