Tony Daley predicts issue that may affect every Championship club upon restart
Former Wolves and Aston Villa player Tony Daley has claimed that the Championship is returning at least one week too early for West Brom.
The now-fitness guru spent a decade at Molineux as the club’s head of sports science and conditioning and believes that the EFL have made the wrong call.
It has been confirmed that the Baggies and the second-tier will return on the 20th of June, with a big Midlands derby against Birmingham first up.
Daley predicts that there is likely to be an increase in soft muscle injuries in the Championship once everything kicks off again.
“It’s definitely a week, minimum, too early to come back (to playing),” he told the Express and Star.
“Players will have been doing something to tick over but you can’t substitute football fitness, contact, accelerating, decelerating and in two-and-a-half weeks.
“It can be done but I won’t be surprised if there’s a large increased in soft muscle injuries.”
Many Championship clubs set their players to have strict fitness and training routines in lockdown so that they could stay in shape.
Players have been back in training since Monday, and the EFL granted permission for full-contact sessions meaning that clubs will have more than two weeks to gain their fitness.
That could be more than enough time, especially if the routines during lockdown were strict enough – just as the Baggies will most likely have been.
In other West Brom news, an ex-Baggies star revealed he’d consider Hawthorns return as a coach.
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