Why major Premier League vote will please Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk

The decision to return to contact training was agreed following consultation with clubs, players, managers, the Professional Football Association (PFA), the League Managers Association (LMA) and the government.

The Championship are expected to hold a similar vote in the coming days and the unanimous nature of the top tier vote suggests a similar result is expected.

Plans for the third phase of Project Restart include a step towards normal training and build-up to competitive games.

Speaking exclusively to The Star just hours after he returned from the first day back at training on Monday, Wednesday wing-back Moses Odubajo reported a positive atmosphere at Middlewood Road and described it as the ‘safest place players can visit’.

Odubajo also revealed that players would be tested for coronavirus every Monday and Thursday under stringent tracking of the illness. Last week it was confirmed that across the entire league two Hull City players had tested positive.

Speaking to The Star last week Owls boss Garry Monk made clear he would welcome the imminent return of contact training ahead of a possible resumption in June.

He said: “We’ve pretty much been in that same period, you know eight to nine weeks now where the players have been off. Yes, they've been following home programmes, but they'll be in similar conditions as they would if they’d finish the season and had a normal summer break.

“So in terms of preparation, this is the biggest concern. It seems to be that everyone, the authorities, want this to be accelerated and done as quickly as possible.

“I hear this word about ‘integrity’ a lot. To have integrity, we need a proper period of full-contact training to even get these players near to be ready for a game.

“And let's not forget that we're going to have to go into - and this is a bit this unknown because nobody’s even really talked to us about schedules about games yet - but it's very highly likely we're going to go into a real short intense period.”

An important message:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, please consider a subscription to The Star by going to thestar.co.uk/subscriptions.

The coronavirus lockdown is having a major impact on many of our local advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive. That means we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers and subscribe to our website during this crisis.

Stay safe and take care. Thank you. Alex.