Just like in the rest of the country, the number of corona infections within the Eredivisie is also increasing. Trainers have to puzzle with the formation and are concerned about the health of players and their loved ones.
“Yes indeed, I am concerned about the health of the players and their families”, PSV coach Roger Schmidt said on Sunday at the press conference after his team’s 2-1 defeat against Vitesse. Of the 27 selection members of PSV, 8 tested positive in the last few weeks.
These eight individuals showed no symptoms of COVID-19, but Schmidt wonders what will happen if that changes. “What do we do if one of us has to go to hospital or even ends up in intensive care? Will we still continue playing football?”
PSV is certainly not the only professional football club to be plagued by the virus. AZ reported the fifteenth positive test within the selection on Sunday.
“I am quite worried. At first about the health of those guys themselves. But we also have staff members who are a bit older, as well as relatives of the players”, coach Arne Slot said. FOX Sports.
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PSV coach Roger Schmidt. (Photo: Pro Shots)
Football bubble turns out not to be waterproof
After the 2019/2020 season was halted in March due to the corona crisis, the KNVB, together with the government, drew up a corona protocol with which professional football could be resumed after the summer. Players and staff of all clubs are tested regularly and stay in their own bubble as much as possible.
The recent outbreaks of contamination at PSV and AZ, among others, show that those bubbles are not watertight. “We do everything we can and obey all the rules. Yet there were three new positive cases in the previous test,” said Schmidt. “The virus is uncontrollable.”
According to the corona protocol, PCR tests are used, the results of which take a whole day to arrive. As a result, infected players were on the training field at PSV in recent weeks, who had not yet received the results of their test.
‘With every test round the feeling: what are we going to hear next?’
At AZ, the corona rules are also carefully observed, but that still leads to strange situations. “On Friday we came back from Naples. Then we immediately do quick tests, in which three youngsters turned out to be positive. They were immediately sent home”, says Slot.
“At the same time we also did a PCR test. The result in two of the three positive boys was negative one day later”, said the AZ trainer.
Three hours before Sunday the match against ADO Den Haag (2-2) started, Slot decided in consultation with the team doctor to have one of those two players come to The Hague after all. “We had the boy do a quick test here. Then he turned out to be positive again and we immediately sent him home. Fortunately he had not been near the other players.”
“This is now the reality for us,” says Slot. “You get the feeling with every test round: gosh, what are we going to hear again?”
View the stand, the results and the program in the Eredivisie
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