West Brom halt group training amid coronavirus outbreak
Albion have cancelled first-team training and issued the players with individual programmes to carry out at home following the latest advice regarding coronavirus.
On Monday it was revealed the Baggies hoped to continue to train throughout the enforced suspension of football – with head coach Slaven Bilic initially deciding to implement a schedule similar to what they use during an international break.
But later in the day, Prime Minster Boris Johnson urged against all non-essential physical contact and travel.
And that has led to the club cancelling training with Albion insisting the well-being of players, staff, their families and the public must come ahead of football operations.
"After the decision to postpone the game against Birmingham City, we met to discuss what we needed to do and at that point, we had to prepare as if we had our own nine-game World Cup beginning in April," Bilic said.
"We had to be fit and ready for when the programme resumed.
“The players reported normally for training yesterday (Monday) and we met with the doctors for 40 minutes to ask our questions and establish as much information as possible.
"We then trained normally and the players were extremely professional.
“But after the Prime Minister’s new guidelines for the country last night, it was clear we needed to address the issue of group training again.
"I spoke with my staff and the doctors and decided that we could not gamble with the well-being of the players, my staff and their families.
“We had to follow the advice of the government and this is what we have done. This will remain the situation until further notice."
The suspension of football has sparked a mass debate about what to do when the game is able to return.
Albion and Leeds are the overriding favourites with the bookmakers to win promotion to the Premier League having both sat in the Championship's top two for the vast majority of the campaign.
But there has been some talk that the season could be declared null and void.
More information will hopefully come out in the coming days with EFL officials set to meet Wednesday, while the Premier League will meet Thursday.
Bilic is hopeful that long-term, the season will be completed.
But he says at this moment in time there are more important things than football.
"Obviously, it would be the best solution for football if, at some point in the future, the fixtures can be re-arranged for the season to be concluded," Bilic added.
"But there are far bigger issues at stake here than mere football matches and we all know that.”
Meanwhile, Nick Davies – who is in charge of the sports science department – says the Baggies will still be able to monitor how the players are performing even while they are training at home.
He said: “This is a ‘maintenance phase’ for the players and with the technology we have at our disposal and the specialist staff, we will be able to monitor their condition effectively.”
