Players are hesitant to return in July
By Shane Brophy
GAA teams will be permitted to return to action on July 20th but many clubs will struggle to but teams together it would seem.
A poll carried out by the Club Players Association (CPA) indicated that just 57% of players are repared to return to playing this year, 22% are not prepared to play and 21% haven't made up their minds at this stage.
In addition 61% said they were prepared to attend club games while 34% would attend inter-county games.
Of those surveyed, 27% live with a person over the age of seventy years of age or an individual with an underlying health condition.
This would indicate to team sporting organisations looking to get back into action on that date that more work has to be done to allay players fears of not only contracting Covid-19, but also potentially bringing it home and transmitting it to another family member.
GAA President John Horan confirmed on Sunday night that there will be no return to games or training which social distancing is in place.
"If social distancing is a priority to deal with this pandemic, I don't know how we can play a contact sport and that is what Gaelic games is," he said.
"Our concern has to be the players on the pitch, their families and their work colleagues, they are all amateurs."
However, former Tipperary All Ireland winning midfielder Shane McGrath has called on the GAA to go a step further and call off all activity for the rest of the year.
"The truth would be hard to take if there was no GAA this year," he said.
"I don't think it is safe for lads to play matches until it is safe for people to sit side by side with eachother at a match. I'm no health expert and I don't claim to be but everybody seems to be saying the vaccine is a way off. The only way we are going to sort this is without a vaccine, to get the infection down to zero will the very difficult."
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