Lee Bowyer is hoping to have his team back in training on Friday although he admitted that could still change based on government or EFL advice.
Speaking to cafc.co.uk last night he explained his side had been off since last Friday’s news that the professional game in England has been postponed until at least April 3rd.
He said: “After training on Friday we were ready to go up to Hull. To be honest, I thought we were going to play behind closed doors. I thought that was going to be the next step but obviously that wasn’t the case. We then thought the right thing to do is to shut the place down. So we shut the place down, no-one has been there since. They’ll clean the place up and then we’ll train again Friday. So the player have been at home this past week and doing their own stuff.
“We’re sending the players running programmes for them to do. They’ve had to do their own thing.
“It’s difficult because some of them live far away and with things changing that can be tough. Some people are worried about their families. Pearcey [Jason Pearce] and George [Lapslie] have asked if they can not come in because their wives are pregnant. For me that’s understandable – they’ve got to stay away. They’re not going to get the training that the others are going to get but I fully understand why they are saying that and I think the right thing for those two to do is to stay away. There are special circumstances that we have to try and adapt for.”
He explained he has to keep an eye on the potential April 4th clash against Millwall at The Valley.
“From what I understand Millwall have been in the last day or so training, so we can’t just tell our players to stay away. We have to bring them in, in case that game does go ahead.
“My worry is that if the players are away for two-three weeks from advice from people high up and then they just chuck at us that we’ve got to play a game in two weeks – you aren’t going to get the players up to speed in two weeks, so we have to prepare for that. The players have been away running but it is not the same as training every day.
“Some teams up north are training still – they’ve been training since last week. Obviously we try to follow the guidelines, I think the EFL need to step in now and say that no-one can train. If this is what we are going to do now, wait, and I think things will get put further and further back if I’m honest, then they have to then step in as those that are training will have a head start for when games do start again.”
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