Norwich City have today resumed training at Colney, having had no positive COVID-19 test results from their first batch of testing.
Although the Canaries’ squad were only tested on Tuesday and the official results have yet to be announced, according to The Telegraph, there have been no positive COVID results in the Norwich City samples.
.@JPercyTelegraph exclusive: Norwich to return to training on Friday after no positive tests https://t.co/X9aAsE48in
— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) May 20, 2020
Despite the Telegraph’s assertion that Norwich will get back to training on Friday, the club has released a short video via social media which shows Teemu Pukki, Mario Vrancic and Onel Hernandez all heading out on to the training pitches.
📍 Lotus Training Centre
We are back. pic.twitter.com/BNbXrU07y2
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) May 21, 2020
The sighting of Hernandez is particularly good news though as it means that he has returned to fitness, after surgery on his knee in February, which could be very useful with Project Re-start clearly ramping up.
The Premier League stakeholders agreed in a meeting last Monday that players could return to training this week with social distancing in place and no contact during training. Clubs are set to be working with players in two groups of five for 75-minute at a time before the next set of players arrive. Players must arrive and leave in their kit too.
Whilst a return to competitive football still seems a way off, to my mind, having athletes come in to train and use the facilities in such a way is clearly going to be good for them physically and probably mentally as well. Football is going to start again and the better prepared teams are, the better chance they have of making something of the strange circumstances that games sound as though they will be played in. That especially applies to teams, like Norwich City, that have something to play for.
From the way the Bundesliga teams appeared at the weekend, some of it could simply come down to which team is the fittest on match day.
OTBC