Premier League clubs fear government’s test-and-trace app could strip them of star players

PROJECT RESTART is at risk of being thrown into chaos by the UK’s test-and-trace regulations — which could now strip teams of their star players.

Premier League clubs have worked tirelessly with health authorities to come up with a way of working which will allow them to get the season completed.

The Premier League could be facing yet another hurdle to getting the ball fully rolling againCredit: Reuters

But the new test-and-trace rules mean that players may be ordered to self-isolate for 14 days — even if they have produced negative results in their twice-weekly Covid-19 tests.

If any player or coach tests positive for coronavirus, they must give the details of everyone they have been in contact with, including team-mates and opposition players.

It is then up to the tracing team to decide if that close contact in games or training is enough for people to be potential carriers of the virus.

And if they order isolation then there is NOTHING clubs can do to prevent their aces being ruled out.

That raises the prospect of central defenders in the same team being contacted and ordered to stay at home for a fortnight if an opposition forward they had been marking in a top-flight match tested positive.

And it also threatens to leave clubs being ordered to isolate large numbers of their squad if one staff member produces a positive test, no matter if other individuals are negative.

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty made a point of stressing at Wednesday’s daily conference how one of the major problems with Covid-19 is that people are carriers and become infectious before they show any symptoms.

Which is why any recent negative test a player or coach can point to will count for nothing if the contact-tracing team order them to isolate.

The protocols for a return to full training and matches were drawn up by the leagues and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in an attempt to reduce the Covid-19 risk as much as possible.

But they are not fool-proof, and contact between players in training and matches can still be deemed by medical officials as enough to pass the infection on.

Test and trace makes it clear that, outside of the family home, the biggest potential for spreading coronavirus occurs in “face-to-face” contact, or being within two metres of someone who has tested positive.

Match action and contact training evidently risk those scenarios — and each instance will be looked at closely by the contact-tracing team.

And clubs will be powerless to stop several players being ordered to quarantine at the same time if the tracers decide it is needed.

The Premier League would then have to decide if teams are able to fulfil fixtures over a two-week period if they end up having a number of stars unavailable.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk