The Premier League are set to delay Project Restart after Jose Mourinho led concerns over player welfare at Wednesday’s managers' meeting.
At a managers’ meeting to outline the plans on Wednesday, Mourinho is understood to have insisted players need at least a month to prepare for a return to action after seven weeks off.
With some players unwilling to return to training on Monday, May 18 citing fears over the coronavirus, top flight bosses are being faced with a rapidly shrinking window to work with their squads.
Mourinho is understood to have been backed by several of his Premier League counterparts including Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Before the season ground to a halt, Mourinho’s Spurs squad in particular was ravaged by injury with Steven Bergwijn, Ben Davies, Harry Kane, Davinson Sanchez, Moussa Sissoko, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min all sidelined for their last game, a 3-0 defeat to RB Leipzig.
Mourinho now has a fit squad but is unwilling to take any chances on his players’ well being.
All 20 top-flight managers, joining by video conference, were shown the safety protocols on Wednesday for a return to training by the Premier League’s medical officer, Mark Gillett.
While the overall response to the plans was largely positive, the concerns about player fitness in order to prevent injury were a key point in the meeting.
Professor James Calder, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and the independent chair of the Chief Medical Officer’s consultancy group was also present.
So too was Jonathan Van Tam, the UK government's deputy chief medical officer, to stress that everything possible is being done to facilitate a return to action as quickly as possible.
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