More than 10 members of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ backroom staff were swabbed for Covid-19 on Monday as the Premier League began its testing procedure in advance of a potential resumption of matches.
Wolves are the first club to undergo the procedure. The nose and mouth swabs were performed by Premier League-appointed medics at a drive-through station in the club’s training ground in Compton, with the specimens delivered to a laboratory in London for analysis. The results will be sent to Wolves’ doctor Matt Perry, who served as a medical adviser to the Premier League for four years before Wolves’ promotion in 2018. The plan is to test players later this week and at regular intervals thereafter.
Wolves players returned to Compton on Monday for the first time since the league was suspended in March. Having been keeping fit at home since then, they arrived at different times and trained individually on separate pitches.
Wolves were not one of the clubs whose doctors wrote to the Premier League last week expressing major concerns about a potential resumption of the league.
Premier League players are split between those keen to resume the season and those with reservations, the latter group broadly echoing the stance of Tottenham’s Danny Rose and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling. Rose, who is on loan at Newcastle, dismissed via Instagram the idea that football should return to boost morale, saying “people’s lives are at risk”, and Sterling wants matches played only when it is safe for all those involved.
The Professional Footballers’ Association will support any player who does not wish to play. Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Chris Wilder, the managers of Manchester United of Sheffield United respectively, have said they would not force anyone back into action.
The PFA is consulting with its Premier League members via club representatives before Wednesday’s planned meeting with players, medical staff and the league. It is understood players have had sight of a document outlining protocols relating to a proposed return to training, which indicates best practice.