Former Premier League star warns players want safety guarantees or they won't play

The biggest obstacle to finishing the football season could be the players’ fears over their own safety, according to one former Premier League star.

Ex-Republic of Ireland and Stoke City striker Jonathan Walters says he’s spoken to many players who are more than anxious about restarting, but at the moment are not confident enough to speak out.

“I know there’s a fair few players who say 'there is no way I want to get back playing until there’s near enough a guarantee of safety'," Walters told ITV News.

"There are all these ideas floating about, but you still can’t guarantee the safety of players.

"What if something happens to a player and they catch the virus and they pass it on to a member of their family? It’s something you’d never forgive yourself for.”

Former Burnley forward Walters’ comments come on a day when Premier League clubs have been told the season can only be finished at neutral venues; teams playing at home grounds where fans might congregate in large numbers is considered too much of a risk by police and local authorities.

The league has identified up to 10 stadia as hosts, all of them bar one are Premier League grounds. The ones chosen, such as Manchester City and West Ham, are located away from congested urban areas.

The Etihad Stadium in Manchester is one of the selected venues. Credit: PA

The league also revealed on Friday that there are no plans for complete isolation of players but they will be tested twice a week. The total number of tests required to finish the season is 40,000.

Walters is not convinced these measures will carry the players with them, he said: “If the government are telling people you’ve got to have a two-metre social distancing rule and yet you’re allowing footballers to have a full contact sport, there’s going to be a lot of ‘why are we being allowed to risk ourselves here? And then what happens if I play and then bring it back to my own doorstep if I’ve got young children’.

"They have young families and what happens if you bring it back and something serious happens to one of your children or a family member, where’s the risk and how do you weigh that up, who takes the blame for that?”

Furthermore, Walters says that players are not only anxious about their own safety, but the message a restart might give the wider public. “We’re still getting hundreds of people dying every day, hospitals are still getting filled up, it’s very serious out there, what makes it ok for players to go into a full contact sport; those are the fears going through players heads at the moment.”

The Premier League next meets after the Prime Minister’s update on lockdown measures next Thursday.

Clubs will vote then on how the end of the season will look, if of course there is an end of season at all.

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