NRL 2020: NRL virus expert says season is unlikely to restart this year
The COVID-19 expert who has been advising the NRL on its season shutdown has sensationally revealed she doesn’t believe the game will return in 2020.
NRL
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The pandemic expert that advised the NRL to immediately suspend the 2020 season has warned the premiership is unlikely to restart this year.
The NRL has indefinitely suspended its season amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the earliest possible return to play slated for June.
The season could recommence as late as September 1 and play a grand final in late December, such is the desperation of the game to start receiving crucial broadcast revenue again.
But in an interview with Nine Newspapers, the pandemic and biosecurity expert delivered a brutal blow to the NRL’s hopes of playing again in 2020.
“I don’t think it’s going to be this year,” the professor said on the condition of anonymity.
“I think we will be dealing with this epidemic for the better part of this year.
“I’m really hoping we will have a vaccine next year. The idea is to manage the catastrophic disruption to society until we can vaccinate people and protect them. Then we can resume normal societal functions — like sport. But that won’t be any time this year.”
The NRL was criticised for playing the opening two rounds of the season while sports around the world shutdown.
The AFL announced last Sunday it was suspending its season, but the NRL soldiered on for another day before calling stumps on Monday night following the expert’s advice to immediately halt.
The expert said the pandemic would become worse before it got better.
“It’s the calm before the storm — but that storm is coming,” she said.
“What if one of your players gets sick and dies? Is it worth taking the risk of losing a player in the prime of their career?
“That perception that it’s mild, it’s not a problem, is not correct. Young people have died. Children have died in this epidemic. It’s not always a mild disease.
“A lot of people who are younger who are filling up the ICUs in the United States, even in NSW, a large number of the cases are in the 30s age group.
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“If it’s spreading in young people, the players are getting together every week for the games, congregating in groups creates a risk of transmission because one of them has asymptomatic infection, they could spread it and then the families and other loved ones, staff, doctors, physios and other teammates could get it.”
Originally published as NRL 2020: NRL virus expert says season is unlikely to restart this year