At Aston Villa, small groups of players will arrive at staggered times and will train apart in order to comply with the safety and social distancing guidelines. Staff and squad members will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms upon arriving at the Bodymoor Heath while, throughout the week, players will be tested at least twice. Villa manager Dean Smith has admitted that going to play in an empty stadium will be a depressing state of affair as fans are the ones who create the spark in the stadiums.
Dean Smith said: “I find it hard thinking that we are going to be going back to empty stadia, that adrenalin and that atmosphere is what creates football. I am looking forward to a resumption as soon as we can really. We are ready, we are keen but it has got to be right to do so. We are following the government’s guidelines at the moment and we are still in lockdown so it’s really tough looking to plan. You are planning for the unplannable. You try to talk to your staff and plan training sessions when we are eventually back in terms of how it might look with social distancing, how it might look if it is not social distancing. We have spent an awful lot of video chats as a group of staff, discussing what to do when we get back.
