Sheffield United to vote on contact training

The news is positive for Sheffield United, who are keen to see the 2019-20 season resumed after the coronavirus pandemic.

If the clubs can agree, it is expected players will be allowed contact training in small groups from Thursday, before the Government has lifted its social distancing guidelines for the general public. A further meeting that day is then expected to discuss other outstanding issues, including a date for the resumption of matches, the use of neutral venues, how the league will be resolved if the remaining games cannot be played and the broadcasting of games, with Downing Street keen to make some games free-to-air.

Clubs will have to discuss if the twice-weekly testing regime needs to be increased, and the response if players are found to have contracted Covid-19 once training moves to the next phase.

Under it, clubs are set to initially train in “clusters” of two or three, increasing to larger groups and ultimately full training.

The Government removed its objection to this, with sports minister Nigel Huddleston saying elite sports could resume on condition that “individual sports must review whether they have the appropriate carefully controlled medical conditions in place before they can proceed, and secure the confidence of athletes, coaches and support staff.”

Premier League footballers have only been back training in small groups under strict protocols for a week and despite the reservations of some high-profile players, there has been a noticeable upping of the pace, encouraged no doubt by just eight positive results from two rounds of testing covering Premier League players and staff. There have been 1,744 tests, and the results of the next batch should be known on Wednesday.

Germany’s Bundesliga has played two rounds of weekend matches since returning after the pandemic with apparent success, and the Spanish authorities have given the go-ahead for La Liga to return, probably on June 11 or 12.

Four weeks of training, including the group work, would allow Premier League matches to resume on June 15. Some squads, including Sheffield United’s, had been using their training grounds on an individual basis for three weeks before group training was approved, but others continued working at home until then.

Watford captain Troy Deeney and Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante are amongst the players still to return because they are uncomfortable with the health risks to them and their households.
The Government will require clubs to provide “meticulous, time and date sensitive, written records of player groups and interactions” to trace those who test positive.

The issue of neutral venues seemed to have been resolved when the Government dropped its objections to clubs using their own grounds provided the police licenced games, but it has since been suggested this may not be granted for certain fixtures where crowds could gather outside because of their importance.

Seventh in the Premier League with 10 matches to play and still in the FA Cup, the Blades have been consistent throughout the pandemic in their desire to complete a season which could deliver their first European qualification.

Most Championship clubs only returned to training yesterday, although Hull City had already planned not to come back until Thursday.

The Tigers produced the division’s only positives in its first wave of 1,014 tests. With the two unnamed and asymptomatic players and/or staff members found to have Covid-19 self-isolating for a week, it has been reported Hull have voluntarily introduced an extra round of testing.

Whilst the Premier League is covering the cost of testing, at Championship level it is paid for by clubs. It has not been extended to League One, which has not yet decided if it should try to complete the season. Without it, only individual training can take place.

Hull have been the Championship club most open in opposing the resumption of the 2019-20 season. They have raised legitimate questions about the consequences of restarting but as the team directly above the relegation zone, would also be most at risk in a footballing sense.
The current social-distancing rules will continue to apply during travel to training, equipment-sharing will be avoided where possible, and most communal areas will remain closed.

A group of English cricket’s leading 18 bowlers have begun training on an individual basis, with 22 batsmen and wicketkeepers due to start facing bowling machines from June 1. Sailing and taekwondo have also started the process of returning to action in socially-distanced environments, but multi-sports centres such as Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport are yet to determine when they will be able to reopen.

Editor’s note: First and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you. James Mitchinson, Editor