‘Players the most important people’ says Garry Monk as Sheffield Wednesday prepare to return

Shortly after a Hull City email asking for the season to voided was leaked, Monk insisted his managerial counterparts are all in favour of getting back onto the field, and today’s Football League board meeting could take them one step closer.

Only since May 25 has been floated as a possible training ground return date does Monk feel squads and managers have been properly consulted by the Football League, but he says none of his players have expressed concerns to him yet.

“I think maybe early on that (consultation process) got sidestepped and people were just cracking on without their consideration,” he said, “but the biggest point of all of this if we take the fan side out of it, is that these players across all clubs have to be the ones that go out and deliver on a football pitch, so they’re the most important people.

“We got quite a bit of the way through it with minimal consultation. You’ve seen in the last couple of weeks since this process has been ramped up a little bit that they’ve been considered more.

“Our players talk with the PFA (the Professional Footballers’ Association) about various things but there’s been no talk with the EFL about anything like that from my players.

“You make of it what you will. Whether we’ll get to that when it’s a bit further down the line of phase three, I suppose that will be the big debate because that’s when it will be full contact (training) and it will be down to the outside influences of the Government and where we are with this lockdown situation. That could be where more issues come up.

“We won’t go to phase three until the Government says everyone can.”

All Monk’s players are back in the country awaiting the green light to return to Middlewood Road. “I had my first proper meeting (with the players about a return) on Zoom on Monday night,” he said. “We went through all the protocols and how it would look to us. There were a few questions on testing, but no reservations about returning to training as yet from the players.

“We have to understand they’re human beings with the same problems, issues and concerns as anyone else.

“If a player has an issue or is concerned about a risk to him or his family, you have to consider that. Speaking to the club, we would look to do the right thing by that player or member of staff but we’ll cross those bridges when we come to it.

“There’s been players with symptoms but we haven’t run tests so it’s unknown at this point. Maybe when we start testing we’ll know if anyone has had it before or has got it now. That test on Thursday or Friday will probably give us that information.

“There’s no one abroad now. This is the first time we’ve been given more of a definite guideline so we’ve made sure that they’re all back in Sheffield. They’ll be ready to go with everyone else.”

Time will be of the essence for the Football League to meet its target of completing the 2019-20 season, including the play-offs, by July 31.

Despite boardroom reservations – Hull are not thought to be the only club doubting the wisdom of returning – Monk says Championship managers all want to resume the season.

“We had a Championship managers meeting the other day and I think we’re all in agreement that we want to complete the season,” he revealed. “I think that’s the right thing to do.

“There are still certain things the EFL need to do in terms of the return dates for phases one, two and three needing to be signed off. There are a few grey areas that need to be worked out.”

With all Championship teams having nine matches to play, the aim is to spread them across five weekends and the midweeks inbetween.

At Premier League and Football League level there has been much discussion recently about how much time players need to prepare having not played since the first full weekend in March. Germany’s Bundesliga resumed at the weekend after around five weeks’ training, and this appears to be becoming a benchmark many people are using.

The League does not believe it is feasible to play beyond July 31 because of contractual difficulties.

The Owls have 10 senior players out of contract on June 30, and a further five on loan. Because players receive one-month severance pay if they fail to find another club in July, the hope is this can be used to get an extra 31 days out of them.

Premier League players returned to group training (“phase two”) yesterday, after receiving test results for all their players and relevant staff. Of the 748 people tested, only six tested positive and will isolate for the next seven days.

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