Garry Monk wants Sheffield Wednesday's June 20 restart date pushed back

The Football League (EFL) announced on Sunday evening it had set a provisional June 20 date for the return of its games but has received a lot of criticism from clubs unhappy at the lack of consultation and notice.

Because it was announced before the return of contact training had even been signed off, the Owls will only begin that process in earnest on Thursday – 16 days before a likely game at home to Nottingham Forest.

As the date is only provisional, Monk would like to see it changed in the spirit of the agreement he thought Championship managers had reached with the League.

"We were all taken aback by that having spoken to other managers and people at other clubs,” he said.

"We had a managers' meeting a few weeks ago with the EFL and the managers of the Championship. One thing that we all asked for and there was an agreement of we would have a minimum of three weeks contact training.

"If everyone has adhered to the guidelines and returned on the 25th (of May), then I think there is no manager that can sit here and say to you honestly that two-and-a-half weeks of contact training is good enough preparation for the players to play in an intense batch of games.

“We believed we were working definitely a week behind the Premier League so of course I think that (a one-week delay) should happen but it seems those decisions weren't made with any consultation to us as clubs, so whether we have a say in that remains to be seen. You'd like to think that will happen but all I'm trying to do is control what I can control and now it's been announced trying to focus on preparing these players as best as possible to start on the 20th.

“I understand the reasons why the EFL wanted to do that date but I think it's unfair on us when the Premier League are starting on that date and they've had longer in contact training, they started training before we did and of course we would like the same. That's always been the consensus.

“It's not just about all of that, it's about the safety of everyone. Hopefully commonsense will come through. I'd like it to, but whether or not it will, we'll wait and see.

"The thing I have been hearing a lot in the past couple of weeks from various parts of the media, ex-players and pundits and the thing I don't agree with is very flippantly just saying soft tissue injuries or injuries are part of the game. It is to be expected in this period because of it.

"I feel strongly against that because I have seen soft-tissue injuries and what might be a very minimal injury - a four to six-week injury - ruin players' careers. It can be a start of a catalogue of injuries.”

Matches in England's top four divisions were suspended on March 13 because of coronavirus, and in the coming days, individual clubs took the decision to ask players to train at home ahead of the Government's lockdown.

Some Premier League clubs started reopening their training grounds for individual work on April 27, with Sheffield United doing so the next day but it was May 19 before its players were allowed to work in groups and another nine days before contact training – ie tackling – was allowed.

Championship clubs were not allowed to train at all at their training grounds until May 25, and only this week can they restart contact work.

Sheffield United are one of four Premier League clubs due to play again on June 17 to clear their game in hand but the rest will return at the weekend, when the Championship plans to play its first post-pandemic games.

“There are protocols in place and with the announcement of contact training coming so late on Monday, we trained on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday is an off day and we train Thursday, Friday, Saturday,” explained Monk. “So when contact training got announced late on Monday night and the club had to hand back in its sign-off and the risk assessments, it was too late at that point to change what we did on the Tuesday so we were already following the social distance training.

“We did have one part of training on Tuesday right at the very end which was more what you'd call contact training but it was still very, very minimal.

“I think now when you move into the contact side of it, it will be a lot different to the social-distancing side phase.”

Despite the risk of injury in increasing and changing a professional sportsperson's workload, Monk says the club have not suffered any as yet, or any positive covid-19 tests since they started in the days leading up to the first training session. Nor has any player told him they are unwilling to play, as has been the case with three Charlton Athletic players due to leave in the summer. Wednesday have 10 players out of contract this month, and five on loan.

“The majority of the group have come back in very good condition, I’ve been very pleased, they’ve worked very hard we’ve come back in, but no matter training, when you come to matches that’s when the acid test is and it always takes a bit of time to get to match-sharpness," he said.

“We had our tests and we've had a few come back, we're just waiting for the rest before I speak to the doctor later this (Wednesday) afternoon but so far we've had a clean bill of health.

“There have been no conversation or chats of any reservations at this time.”

The Football League is yet to approve clubs playing friendlies ahead of the restart, but if they do, Monk will limit the Owls to in-house games.

“We’ll try to fit in in-house games, friendly games as much as we can, probably not so much friendly games from the outside because of the risk that comes with that,” he said.

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