Watford players
Several more Watford players are reportedly refusing to train after the club provided three of the six positive coronavirus tests across the Premier League.
The club’s captain Troy Deeney revealed he would not be reporting for training on Tuesday as he did not feel safe to return amid concerns for his son’s health, who has had breathing difficulties, and over the increased risk of catching the virus to BAME males.
Premier League players and staff underwent coronavirus testing over Sunday and Monday at their bases before returning to training and six positive cases were revealed (0.8 per cent) from a total of 748 tests.
According to The Athletic, more players have now joined Deeney’s stance after they were informed on Tuesday evening that one unnamed player and two members of staff at the club were diagnosed with the virus.
Those who have been infected are reported to be doing well and will now spend the next seven days in self-isolation as per government guidelines before being tested again at a later date.
“It only takes one person to get infected within the group and I don’t want to be bringing that home.
“My son is only five months old, he had breathing difficulties, so I don’t want to come home to put him in more danger.’
He added, “For black, Asian and mixed ethnicities, they’re four times more likely to get the illness, they’re twice as likely to have long-lasting illnesses — is there anything extra, additional screening, heart stuff to see if people have got problems with that? No. OK, well I feel that should be addressed.
“I can’t get a haircut until mid-July but I can go and get in a box with 19 people and go and jump for a header and nobody could answer the questions, not because they didn’t want to, just because they don’t know the information.
So I said, if you don’t know the information, why would I put myself at risk?”