‘Recipe for disaster’ – Ferdinand delivers verdict on Championship restart plan
Les Ferdinand has claimed that restarting the Championship season on June 20th could have a worse effect on West Brom players and their peers than Covid-19.
The former England striker, who now works as director of football for QPR, has argued that rushing teams back into action without the necessary period of preparation could lead to widespread injuries.
The senior figure’s comments come after QPR manager Mark Warburton slammed plans to bring the second tier back in three weeks’ time as “ludicrous”.
And Ferdinand has backed up his colleague by voicing his concerns over player fitness.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: “I am not belittling coronavirus in any way whatsoever.
“I appreciate people have lost their lives and it is a serious health issue. When football stopped, players went into lockdown. They were in isolation but at least they were healthy. So they have been OK.
“What I am saying is that we are being asked to be ready to go into a season in less than three weeks’ time. If that’s so, the injuries are going to pile up when the games get going.
“This could be worse for them than Covid-19 from that specific point of view. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
Ferdinand isn’t the first figure to express concerns about players’ fitness, and he probably won’t be the last either.
Even West Brom’s own Boaz Myhill has admitted that he would be apprehensive about diving straight back into action if he was still playing.
But at the same time, clubs will still have the best part of a month to prepare for the restart.
It’s not ideal, but it was never going to be.
And nothing has been stopping teams from preparing ahead of schedule as best as they could.
Slaven Bilic has hailed his side for their “exceptional” fitness work during lockdown, and on the whole seems much less concerned than Mark Warburton clearly is.
Nobody wants to risk players getting injured, of course, but equally, the teams have put the work in to be ready for a restart in any eventuality should not be punished because others have not.
In other West Brom news, Albion are in the hunt to sign this striker who is nicknamed ‘The Tank’.
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