Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling has called for Premier League footballers to received a minimum of four weeks of training before returning to active competition.
Media reports have suggested that the Premier League could make a return on June 12, following an enforced break occasioned by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Sterling has however insisted that players would require at least a month of full training before returning to big-match action.
Sterling expressed his concerns over the plans to resume the Premier League next month while speaking in an interview with the US women’s team captain, Megan Rapinoe, on his YouTube channel.
“You can’t come back in with one-and-a-half or two weeks (of training),” Sterling said.
“You’d need a full four to five weeks, especially if you’re going to go back into competition, when you’re literally paid to win. You do need to do that preparation – you can’t just go straight in,” he said.
Meanwhile, Newcastle boss Steve Bruce has insisted that a start date earlier than the end of June would see players ‘fall down like a pack of cards’.
“We’ve listened to what has been said and, with the precautions taken, we will get back to work and start phase one,” Bruce told the Sunday Telegraph.
“Can we get to that stage where we can have all the players on the pitch together? We don’t know yet.
“Phase one will be mainly fitness work, four or five players on a pitch. Let’s see how we get on.
“You have to remember that they have had eight weeks off and that is probably the longest break some of these players have had in their careers.
“If we were doing pre-season, we would have six weeks and probably have six friendly games to get them ready for the first league match.
“So, we need a good stretch of time here to get them ready. Certainly once we get into stage two, that is vitally important. We need enough preparation to get these players into shape or they are just going to fall down like a pack of cards.
“Most of the managers have the same concerns. We would need at least six weeks. I don’t see how we can play games until the back end of June,” Bruce concluded.
