Till Tuesday the Premier League has tested 748 players and staff members across all the clubs and so far there are six positives from three clubs, as confirmed by the authorities.
The official statement read: “The Premier League can today confirm that, on Sunday 17 May and Monday 18 May, 748 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19.
“Of these, six have tested positive from three clubs. Players or club staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for a period of seven days.
“The Premier League is providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and oversight. No specific details as to clubs or individuals will be provided by the Premier League due to legal and operational requirements.”
This is a big setback for the concerned clubs and the players since finally the teams have been given permission to resume training in small groups from Tuesday.
The EPL had said on Monday: “Premier League Shareholders today voted unanimously to return to small-group training from tomorrow afternoon, the first step towards restarting the Premier League, when safe to do so.”
And these positive results mean the concerned player or the staff will have to face a seven-day isolation period before they can resume their duties.
This is not the end of the testing as the PL is expected to carry out even more tests in the coming days. And while the authorities will publish the league-wide results but the information of the individuals who have tested positive will not be disclosed.
Will the Premier League restart be delayed?
Already some Premier League managers have voiced their concerns over the small time frame they have received to get their players back to full fitness and if more people keep getting tested positive then surely the PL will have no other option but to shift the resumption date by a few more weeks.
Right now the 2019-20 season is expected to return back to action sometime in the middle of June but the management just cannot agree on a date because of a range of disagreements amongst the stakeholders and the clubs.
More to follow…
