Premier League has to give players time to recover before restart, asserts Kevin De Bryune
Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne has asked the Premier League to give players at least four weeks to train before they move on with the season. The Premier League, amongst many others across the world, has come to a complete shutdown with them looking to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
While that has caused serious financial implications for clubs around the world and see care packages handed out, it has also caused massive issues for players especially for those in Europe’s big five leagues. They’re struggling to stay match fit despite training and exercising almost every day with clubs even providing their players with equipment and dietary plans to help keep them fit.
But without proper training and playing regular matches, the players are losing their match fitness and Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne went on to confirm the same. The Belgian has urged the Premier League to give players at least four weeks of training together before resuming the season or else players could get injured after a few games and that is not something the league wants.
“I have no idea if we will still play. Also in England, they want to wait as long as possible with a decision. But as a footballer that is not ideal. You are idle for six weeks, normally you need a preparation of three to four weeks. If we restart immediately, everyone will be injured after a few games. That cannot be the intention,” De Bruyne told Dutch language newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws
While the Jupiler Pro League have opted to end their season and hand out the league title to Club Brugge, the Premier League isn’t looking at the same option. The English top tier wants to finish out their season and issued a joint statement saying the same but De Bruyne doesn’t believe the season should continue if the pandemic stretches out. The Belgian added that if this season eats into the next, it makes no sense continuing and waiting too long will cause problems.
“I would be sorry to stop early after such a good season, but if it avoids problems towards next year, it must be done. But there is a lot of money involved . . . waiting so long to make a decision can cause problems for next season. It is not like we have a very long summer break and can just postpone everything,” De Bruyne added.