ASTON VILLA boss Dean Smith says he will be without two key players in their survival fight due to health concerns.
The stars cannot be named due to patient confidentiality but it underlines another huge hurdle clubs face — even if football returns behind closed doors next month.
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Dean Smith has stated he will be without two of his Aston Villa stars due to coronavirus health concernsCredit: PA:Press Association
Smith said: “There’s a certain risk attached to the return to training of all players and I think they’ll want to make sure we tick the boxes for them to make sure it’s safe to do so.
“We’ve got a player who’s asthmatic, we’ve got a player whose mother in law is in remission and living with the family.
“So you have to be very careful, certainly with the transmission, because this (pandemic) knows no boundaries.
“Everybody wants to get back into training but they also want to see what the medical protocols are first.”
Asthma sufferers are considered among groups most at risk to the threat of Covid-19 according to the NHS.
When pressed if his two players would therefore be forced to “sit out,” Smith told Sky Sports: “I think they would have to be, because the players’ health and safety is paramount.
Everybody wants to get back into training but they also want to see what the medical protocols are first.”
Dean Smith
“If they’re not comfortable to return then you have to return without them until it’s safe to do so. So we have to listen to our players, we have to listen to their concerns.”
There is a growing belief that clubs – especially those currently threatened by relegation – will resist any return to action which threatens their players’ welfare or the integrity of the league season.
Villa suffered a scare last month when goalkeeper Pepe Reina suffered respiratory symptoms consistent with Covid-19.
The Spaniard has recovered now but Villa are still awaiting a return to group training, eight weeks after their last game against Leicester.
And Smith is now focusing on staying in the Premier League, with Villa in the bottom three but with a game in hand.
The manager added: “We are fairly lucky because most of our players have had gyms built in their houses and we feel for the people who are stuck in flats with no gardens.
Premier League clubs have agreed to play at eight neutral venues if the Government agrees football can restart
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“We all want to finish the season. We want to play the games.
“We have got 10 games left – obviously we’ve got an extra one through the Carabao Cup run. If we win that game we’re out of the bottom three and we believe we’ve got enough to get out of there.
“There’s a lot of hypothetical questions out there at the moment but until we get the guidance from the Government about how they want to move forward out of this lockdown, there are a lot more questions than answers.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
