It‘s not like they’re going to walk out the front door and the only people they will interact with in the course of completing these games are the other people on the pitch, all outdoors. That’s an over-simplistic look at the situation.
There was a piece the other day I read that certainly put a different slant on it for me, and that was in seeing comments from Joni McAnuff at Leyton Orient, where he particularly highlights that people in the homes of some of the players will be in the vulnerable groups. The biggest challenge to completing the season here if a degree of restrictions are likely to continue is to do so in a way that alleviates the concerns some players legitimately have about returning at this time.
I do want us to complete this season, but at the same time it’s difficult to say that the concerns like below aren‘t valid.
McAnuff tells The Athletic: “I really find it difficult when I look at people saying ‘football will be back in a few weeks’… I just find it incomprehensible that we could even be talking about that at the moment. Sometimes people forget that (footballers) are normal in the sense that we’ve all got families, some of us have vulnerable adults. I am delivering food parcels to my parents. We’ve got wives and some have very young children, and obviously being around to support them is very important.
“A lot of people talk about the physical aspect and the damage that it could cause at that level but I do also think that there’s a big mental consideration to be looked at as well. And I think getting in players who don’t want (to return), or are not comfortable, is going to be counter-productive because there is no way you can go out onto a pitch when you’re worrying about other issues. I certainly think it’s going to be very important that you get the players on board up and down the country at various clubs. This is not a blanket decision. This is not what’s right for one is right for another. You can’t tell somebody specifically that he has to do X or Y when it comes to the health of him or his family. I don’t think you can cross that line.”
The concerns are registering with clubs. A source high up at one club added: “We have one player whose wife is on the list of people who can’t come into contact with others. She got a letter in week one [advising her] to isolate. She’s the mother of his two kids. What do you do? That is the human part. You might say, ‘You’re paid a lot of money get on with it.’ But it’s not worth more than life, is it? There will be push back from the PFA and the LMA. At the minute all these talks are to do with money, and a little bit about the public being happy football is back on the telly.”