Chelsea reopen Cobham for individual training — report

Some Premier League teams are taking tentative steps towards restarting, and according to Goal, Chelsea have now joined them in reopening the training ground for individual workouts — with players scheduled in hourly slots to avoid close contact and maintain physical distancing guidelines.

A member of the medical staff will supervise the workouts, also from a safe distance.

The only players not set to take part in these workouts are the seven who recently returned from lockdown overseas, who are undergoing a government-suggested 14-day isolation period.

So that’s good news, which isn’t really in abundant supply these days.

The Premier League’s “Project Restart” faces many challenges, from all sides including the teams (especially the relegation-threatened teams making too much noise about the supposed “fairness” of it all), the players (some of whom are understandably scared), and the general public. The world has bigger concerns than some petty sports after all, even if there are literally billions at stake and many clubs are under threat as far as their future existences are concerned.

So while South Korea have returned to football this morning and Germany are set to do so next weekend, the Premier League’s immediate future remains shrouded in mystery, discussion, self-interest, infighting, and general drama that’s playing out on the daily in tiring sensationalist headlines in the tabloids.

And that’s before we get to whether it’s even logistically feasible to do so — i.e. do we have enough testing, resources, and other necessary measures available and in place?

The next meeting of the league is on Monday; we might know more then.