English Premier League clubs may resume training on May 19: Reports

Premier League clubs can resume training on May 19 if the guidelines and protocols – laid by the league authorities under ‘Project Restart’ – are accepted by the footballers and the managers and get approved by the government and Public Health England.

According to a Sky Sports report, the final decision on the matter would be taken at the next Premier League shareholders’ meeting on May 18. If the decision is taken in the favour of resumption, the players will begin training in “tightly-controlled” circumstances.

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However, several players, including Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling and Tottenham Hotspurs’ Hary Kane, had expressed dissatisfaction over Premier League’s hurry to resume the season as they felt the health of the players were being overlooked.

Four club doctors had also voiced their concern about the Project Restart proposals that were sent to all the 20 Premier League clubs to examine and provide their suggestions.

“Some of our players don’t want to come back but the majority will,” one senior executive at a Premier League club said as quoted by the English outlet. “They’re going to play again in Germany so there’s no reason why we can’t try to as well.”

The Premier League players, who are not confident about returning to training due to health and safety concerns, will speak to their respective club captains before deciding whether or not to get back to work.

Meanwhile, some captains – including Manchester United skipper Harry Maguire, Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta and Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson – held a video conference on Wednesday with league authorities and medical experts to understand the guidelines and protocols that the players would have to follow to resume training.

However, the United Kingdom government gave the Premier League a green light to resume the 2019-20 season in June. After the government’s green light, the representatives of all the 20 clubs held a video conference where they tried to chalk out a plan to restart.

The meeting on Monday saw the clubs discussing the plans laid under ‘Project Restart’ which was initiated with aims to see Premier League making a return by June.