Football news - Restarting the Premier League is just not feasible

On Sunday evening Johnson said that those who can't continue to work from home should endeavour to return to their jobs, with the only concrete detail that people should avoid public transport to avoid contracting and spreading the coronavirus disease - this represents Phase 1 of lockdown being unwound. On Monday, these plans were elaborated further with UK government confirming that professional sports in Great Britain can resume behind closed doors for broadcast from June 1 - said to be Phase 2 - after their coronavirus hiatus.

Footballers - in the Premier League at least - should have no problems in avoiding public transport, but nevertheless they remain perhaps some of the most vulnerable non-essential workers.

Of course they do not face the threats of those who work in sustained shifts in closed offices, like those in care homes or call centres. They are not so conspicuously put at risk as those in the NHS either. But their job demands that they have regular physical contact with people from outside their household. They have little to no control over the precautions taken by their teammates, yet could be forced to expose themselves to their touch for most days of the week.

The practicalities of keeping the players apart seem impossible to manage. In more organised and better equipped countries like Germany, professional teams such as Dynamo Dresden have had to go into quarantine as several of their players have tested positive for the virus. AC Milan’s president reported that some of the club’s squad are still recovering.

With the death and infection rate in the United Kingdom still persistent and only slowly declining, it remains obvious that the risk of infection is elevated. We are in level four - who knows exactly where we will be by June 1 - of the government's colour-coded threat ladder. The government continues to look to address capacity issues in the NHS, presumably in anticipation of a second wave that could very well overwhelm the healthcare system as it stands.

It is hard, perhaps impossible, to marry the resumption of football with Johnson’s insistence that we can't loosen restrictions if it threatens to overwhelm the NHS. There is no reliable treatment nor are we anywhere near a vaccine. The NHS does not have sufficient PPE and the notion of functioning and reliable tests being available to football teams but not key workers is unjustifiable if indeed true.

We have seen already with players such as Kyle Walker and Moise Kean, that some professionals are not capable of abiding by the strict restrictions they are issued. It is clearly no fun to be under lockdown, and everyone will make the occasional mistake, but if there are unreported breaches elsewhere then it seems inevitable that new infections will blight the restart.

This won’t be limited to players, either. For every youngster who makes a fool of themselves, there will be those who have gone to their second home or visited their parents against advice, or who will violate the social-distancing rules in place at the given stage of the lockdown. There will be club doctors, administrative staff, coaches and hangers-on who cut a corner out of fatigue or selfishness. Even if you take every precaution recommended, you may still wind up infected by the virus or passing it on while you are asymptomatic. That is the nature of the situation and virus we all face. That is in part why the infection rate across the world remains stubbornly high.

It seems impossible to believe that restarting football and sustaining action will be feasible without imposing far-fetched and severe limits on the activity on those involved. Camera operatives, journalists, coaches, doctors, players and all in attendance at neutral grounds - do they all have to do two weeks of quarantine before the restart? How many have to go back into isolation when there is a positive test? What of the risk of false negatives? How many games can be delayed until the whole endeavour collapses?