Sheffield United monitor travel advice as preparations for the new Premier League season gather pace

Chris Wilder, the United manager, is understood to have identified a site in France as the perfect place for his players to prepare for the new Premier League campaign - which is expected to begin on September 12.

But with international restrictions and infection rates changing on a daily basis, Wilder is believed to have devised an alternative programme which would see United remain on these shores and face domestic rather than overseas opposition ahead of the restart.

Having laid the foundations for their promotion from the Championship in 2019 at Vale de Lobo in Portugal, Wilder decided a change of scenery would prove beneficial long before the spread of the respiratory disease saw the country added to a list of places where British nationals must quarantine after visiting.

France features on the list of official travel corridors, alongside other popular destinations for English football teams such as Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Belgium, where United owner Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud boasts shares in Beerschot, had also been exempt from quarantining measures until a rising number of coronavirus cases within its borders prompted the Foreign Office to alter its status earlier this month. British nationals are now being told to isolate for 14 days if they travel to the country.

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