EPL boost after six positives from 748 tests

The EPL’s plans to resume its season next month received a significant boost when 748 COVID-19 tests produced only six positives from three clubs.

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker arrives at the club’s base for a training session

The English Premier League’s plans to resume its season next month received a significant boost when 748 COVID-19 tests produced only six positives from three clubs.

The results are from 19 of the 20 top-flight clubs, with Norwich City waiting on their results after being tested on Monday.

Ian Woan, the Burnley assistant manager, was among those to test positive.

“Ian is asymptomatic and is currently safe and well at home,” the club said.

Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal were among the clubs understood to have not recorded a positive test.

The announcement of the test results came as clubs began to return to training in small groups for the first time since the suspension of the league on March 13, although Watford captain Troy Deeney said he would not attend when his club hold their first group sessions on Wednesday because of concerns over the health of one of his children. But Danny Rose, the on-loan Newcastle United defender who has accused the league of treating players like “lab rats”, did take part in his club’s training on Tuesday.

Callum Hudson-Odoi, who tested positive for the virus in March, attended Chelsea training despite being arrested on Sunday on suspicion of raping a woman at his West London home.

The Times understands that the club may have disciplined Hudson-Odoi for the apparent breach of lockdown regulations during the meeting after which the woman alleged she had been raped.

The six who tested positive will now self-isolate for seven days. They amount to only 0.8 per cent across the English Premier League testing pool, and Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, whose team trained individually on Tuesday, said that he was confident about the safety measures in place, which include training in groups of five or fewer, for no longer than 75 minutes, and players parking at least three spaces apart. Liverpool began that type of training on Wednesday.

Klopp said: “Nobody wants to bring anybody into danger, but with sticking to the social distancing rule with testing as often as possible, the players will be safe. Germany showed it already — a couple of players had a positive test during the long period, they trained for five weeks and now they play already.”

The German league, which resumed on Saturday, had 10 positives from 1748 tests across their top two divisions when their players first went back to training. Prenetics, the Hong Kong-based biotechnology company that is conducting the testing told The Times that its tests are 98.8 per cent accurate.

A man holds his child up over a fence to look into Liverpool's training session

Because of data protection issues the EPL does not know the identity of the staff or players who have tested positive, and it said it would not identify the three clubs that had had positive tests. Deeney, one of the most vocal critics of the EPL’s plan to return by mid-June, said he could perform the same training tasks that the Watford team will perform on Wednesday from his home.

He cited the health of his five-month-old son as they key factor in staying away at this stage. Deeney said: “He has breathing difficulties, so I don’t want to put him in more danger.”

Deeney, who as club captain has taken part in video calls with other captains and the EPL, said he wanted to know more about proposals for the next stage of the league’s plan, when clubs will resume full contact training.

He said: “I’ve asked simple questions — for black, Asian and mixed ethnicity, you’re four times more likely to get the illness and are twice as likely to have long lasting illnesses. Is there any additional screening, heart stuff to see if anyone has got problems from that? No. OK, well I feel like that should be addressed.

“I can’t get a haircut until mid-July, but I can go and get in a (penalty) box with 19 people and jump for a header. I don’t know how that works and no one could answer the question, so I said, ‘If you don’t know the information, why would I put myself at risk?’

“I want to make it clear: I can’t wait to go back, I have four kids and homeschooling is driving me up the wall.”

Deeney spoke as the Professional Footballers’ Association said that a survey of present and former players on the impact of the coronavirus crisis on mental health had found 57 who were depressed or had considered self-harm.

Around a quarter of those respondents were current players, and 70 per cent of those surveyed said they were worried about their careers, and experienced feelings of nervousness or anxiety.

The EPL will now monitor the results of further tests, which are due to take place twice weekly at the 20 clubs, to inform them whether the virus is spreading even during the first phase of non-contact training.

Richard Masters, the EPL chief executive, has said June 12 remains the date pencilled in for a return to competitive action, though he accepts there could be a delay.

THE TIMES