The COVID-19/EFL training ground rules Sheffield Wednesday must follow today…

Garry Monk and his team must all travel individually to Middlewood Road today as phased training gets underway, and have been told that they should arrive in their training kit – as no access will be allowed into the dressing rooms – and only shower once they arrive home.

While Wednesday are believed to have been given a clean bill of health after the first round of Coronavirus testing last week, but will continue to undergo Covid-19 Antigen Testing twice weekly, with any player or staff member who tests positive – or showing symptoms – then being required to self-isolate for seven days.

There are also strict rules regarding each player’s exit from Wednesday’s training grounds, with the club being asked to ensure that they leave the premises as soon as their essential work is done, while ‘no manual therapy treatment’ is to be conducted unless ‘absolutely essential’.

Here are some of the key rules surrounding the Owls’ return to training -

TRAINING – ARRIVAL AND PREPARATION

15. Each Club must ensure that:

i. Social distancing measures should be maintained from arrival at the training ground.

ii. No Player or member of Staff is permitted to change on arrival at the Training Ground (they should attend the Training Ground wearing the clothes in which they are to train and with any towel, drinks bottle that they wish or are required to use)

iii. Every Player or member of Staff who attends the Training Ground, prior to entering the site, completes a screening protocol to detect symptoms of COVID-19 infection in a manner devised by the Club Doctor (which will ordinarily include a non-invasive temperature check and a medical questionnaire)

iv. No manual therapy treatment of Players by Staff (including soft tissue therapy and massage) prior to training is conducted unless it is absolutely essential and approved by the Club Doctor in advance

v. There is no congregation in communal areas at the Training Ground, including but not limited to medical rooms. The Gym area is to remain closed

vi. Attendance at the Training Ground is limited only to Players and essential Staff

vii. Restaurants and cafeterias at the Training Ground are to remain closed. Clubs may open kitchens (adhering to social distancing requirements) to provide takeaway food for Players to eat away from the Training Ground. This food should be left at a designated collection point upon exit from the ground. No Players are permitted entry to the kitchen.

viii. No Player or member of Staff is permitted to access the dressing room, save to use the toilet and/or hand basin (if no other toilet facilities are available). No shaving, showering or further use is permitted.

ix. No Player is permitted to store any personal items or technical equipment (save for football boots) at the Training Ground

x. Use of medical equipment should be minimised to as low as reasonably practical, thus limited to injury and illness management and provided only under the instruction of the club doctor(s)

TRAINING – PROCEDURE AND PROGRESSION

16. Each Club must ensure that all training complies with the template set out at Annex 1.

17. Each Club must ensure that:

i. Players and Staff refrain from spitting whilst at the Training Ground

ii. Players and Staff keep a distance from one another of at least two metres when entering and leaving the pitch before and after group training

TRAINING – WARM-DOWN AND INJURY PREVENTION PROGRAMS

18. Each Club must ensure that:

i. No manual therapy treatment of Players by Staff (including soft tissue therapy and massage) following training is conducted unless it is essential and approved by the Club Doctor in advance.

ii. No Player uses an ice bath, cryogenic chamber or similar at the Training Ground

iii. Use of medical equipment should be minimised to as low as reasonably practical, thus limited to injury and illness management and provided only under the instruction of the club doctor(s).

TRAINING – EXIT

19. Each Clubs must ensure that:

i. Each Player and member of Staff leaves the Training Ground as soon as they have completed their essential activities and there is no congregation of Players or Staff in any area of the Training Ground

ii. No Player or member of Staff showers or bathes at the Training Ground at any time

iii. Any food, fluid, nutritional supplement or medication that a Club wishes to provide to a Player is left for the Player to collect at a designated point upon his exit from the Training Ground

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Also, it is also stipulated that, in light of the requirement to ensure no congregation of Staff following training, ‘it is recommended that all session planning and tactical meetings should be conducted by teleconference or videoconference’ rather than in person.

It is hoped that the football in the Championship could return in mid-June, with talk of a June 13th restart, however that will rely on what happens over the course of the next week or so as clubs get back training for the first time in over two months.