‘They’ll have heard enough’ – Alan Shearer reacts amid major EFL update on Leeds promotion bid
It’s a big day for Leeds United and their bid to get their promotion bid back on the road as Thorp Arch welcomes first-team players back for training.
And Alan Shearer said that players should be delighted to get back to training after such a long time out of the game.
The EFL gave the green light for Championship clubs to resume training after a first round of Coronavirus testing that has to go down as a massive positive.
Just two people tested positive from 1014 tests, so under 0.2% of the total.
That’s even better than the Premier League testing which saw six people test positive.
Writing in the Sun, Shearer was asked if he would be happy to be back in training.
“As long as I felt it was safe to do so yes I would, I’d be delighted to be training again,” Shearer said.
“It’s been nine or ten weeks at home for most of the players.
“They’ll have heard enough talk of ‘will they or won’t they’ and it would be a relief to get back to doing what they do best for most of them.”
He was backed up by fellow pundit Danny Higginbotham who said, “If you ask any footballer I think they would say they have missed it…
“Players are in arguably the most protected work environment there is around, in terms of testing and the social distancing there is right now. Nobody is taking any chances.”
The Bundesliga has shown the world what football behind closed doors looks like.
It’s a bit odd but the football itself hasn’t suffered and Leeds fans will be delighted to see their players on the pitch, even if it is behind closed doors.
The first big step towards that happens today and we can’t overplay the significance of Monday’s training sessions.
The two positive tests came from Hull, who have called for the season to be ended early. It will be interesting to see how that plays out, with a similar situation involving Watford in the Premier League.
However, the noise coming from the Championship is that the majority of clubs want to play on and that’s great news.
Certain players might have their reasons to not want to go back to training, but we agree with Shearer – and certainly when it comes to Leeds.
They’ll be raring to go after over two months out and we’re looking forward to getting the first photo updates later today.
And we’ve got to admit that we’re especially looking forward to seeing Little Kev after his transformation under lockdown.
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