JUST as Bundesliga, the German football league, gets down to resume action after a break of more than two months, news has popped up from Spain that five La Liga players - from two leagues in their set-up - have tested positive for the coronavirus. Players and teams across the European continent and rest of the world are preparing - in a staggered way - to resume action behind closed doors but yesterday’s news on La Liga players contracting the virus won’t be an encouraging soundbite for football fans.
Though the players have not been named by La Liga officials as of yet but teams preparing at training grounds in Europe will have to be all the more careful with their plans to resume football. La Liga giants Real Madrid are set to resume training today (Monday) while Barcelona are scheduled to hit the training pitches on Friday. A La Liga statement released yesterday said: “Among La Liga Santander and La Liga SmartBank (Segunda) clubs, five positive cases were detected in players, all of them asymptomatic and in the final phase of the disease. One of the objectives of these medical tests, according to the La Liga’s protocol for returning to training, according to recommendations of the CSD (Supreme Sports Council) and the Ministry of Health, was precisely to detect the denominated or asymptomatic, that is, those people who are infected and that, without presenting symptoms, they can infect other people,” the statement added.
Stringent rules and regulations have been put in place for players willing to train: they have to wear masks and gloves and train in small groups. And what’s more, players have been advised to shower at home besides bringing in a fresh kit bag to training on a daily basis. In Bundesliga, the medical protocols that have to be followed includes training at three separate zones at stadiums to ‘limit human contact’.
It was reported on Saturday that second-tier Dynamo Dresden side in Germany have been ordered to go into quarantine after two coronavirus cases were announced. This latest development means Dynamo Dresde will not be able to play their restart game on May 15.
Since La Liga is at least a month from resuming play, but questions arise: Are the players hitting the training pitch too soon? Are the teams targeting to resume action - like in the case of Bundesliga starting on May 16 - a little too soon? Only time will tell if the football teams in Europe should have waited out at least another month before resuming play.
