Watford captain Troy Deeney has taken another dig at Project Restart insisting that there are various questions that need to be answered. Last week, Deeney admitted that he would not return to the training until he felt safe to do so.
The Watford striker has also blasted the Premier League for their mishandling the screening of BAME (Black, Asian, and minority ethnic) players.
“I think the concern is very much that phases two [full contact training] and three [playing matches] have not been clearly laid out,” Deeney said during an interview with Good Morning Britain on Monday.
“There’s been a lot of, what I would class as very simple questions, that haven’t been answered.
“For example, you can talk about the BAME situation. Government guidelines are saying that it’s four times more likely for people of colour to get the illness and twice as likely to have lasting illnesses but there’s no extra screening, there are no additional checks being done on any players because it costs too much money.
“Simple things like that are where people are asking questions and it’s not being answered. When people can’t answer the questions, you start to panic and start to worry.”
Deeney also expressed his doubts over mass testing of Premier League players. Premier League has allotted £4million for ensuring the safety of players.
“The health side of it is very big for me, my son has breathing difficulties it’s a very tough one to be going into something. I agree we’re getting tested a lot I agree the first phase is probably as safe as it can be, ” Deeney said.
“Phase one is social distancing individual training with a coach, that’s no problem that’s like going to the park. Phase two will be next week six days worth of training three to six people training together with contact and then six days after that you’re going into 11v11 and you can’t social distance with 11 v 11.
“I think that was a question that was raised in this environment. I can control as much as I can, it’s the uncontrollable eventually that we will have to take a risk on. I’m desperate to play football, it’s my job, I’ve got the best job in the world. But there has to be clear and safe measures for everybody, not just me. I saw Tammy Abraham say his dad has asthma and he lives with him so he has concerns.
“It’s not just players at the bottom who are trying to stay in the league it concerns right across the board. I have had a lot of texts from players who are worried about coming out and speaking.
“I would say 98 per cent are very much aware that phase one is very good, I would say 65-70 per cent of people are concerned with phase two I’d say even higher after that.’
“There’s a bigger question to be had here morally as well. We see a lot about care workers and key workers not getting tested and people dying in nursing homes, and things of that nature,” he added.
