Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder Willian believes the majority of Premier League players are “uncomfortable” about returning to the field amid the ongoing crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
German Bundesliga on Saturday became the first major European league to resume the 2019-20 season, while Italian Seire A ad Spanish La Liga clubs are all set to begin team training from next week. Their players have already started individual training as the coronavirus situation there gets better.
However, the crisis in the United Kingdom continues to remain with more than 240 thousand people affected by COVID-19 and over 34 thousand killed, the second-highest in the world.
Meanwhile, Willian’s comments about players not willing to resume playing come at a time when the Premier League and the club officials have pumped up their preparation to make sure the league returns in June.
“Honestly, from what I can see, a lot of players – the majority, I’d say – are uncomfortable with the idea of returning right now,” Willian was quoted by the Evening Standard.
“We’re really keen to return, we really miss playing and doing what we love. But it needs to be safe for us to do so. That’s how we’re looking at it. Our health has to come first.
“So right now, players don’t feel comfortable with the idea of returning until it’s totally safe to do so.
“Our squad has spoken a lot over the internet, via different apps, and we’ve had some meetings too. Lampard has sent us information about what the Premier League wants to do.
“We still don’t know how things are going to play out, moving forward. Hopefully, we’ll know in the next few days. The Premier League is going to have a meeting and then they’ll inform us about the next steps.”
Earlier, players like Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling, Hary Kane, Troy Deeney and Dany Rose had all questioned Premier League’s urgency to resume the competition, even though the fight against coronavirus continued with the same intensity unlike in Spain and Italy.
The United Kingdom government gave the Premier League a green light last week to resume the 2019-20 season in June. After the government’s green light, the club representatives in a meeting tried to chalk out a plan to resume the season.
The meeting on saw the clubs discussing the plans laid under ‘Project Restart’ which was initiated with aims to see Premier League making a return by June.
According to a Sky Sports report, Premier League clubs can resume training on May 19 if the guidelines and protocols – laid by the league authorities under ‘Project Restart’ – are accepted by the footballers and the managers and get approved by the government and PHE on May 18.