Liverpool captain Sophie Bradley-Auckland will not be returning to the squad for the time being as she helps her family run their care home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the club said on Sunday.
Defender Bradley-Auckland, named the club's player of the year last year, is also the manager of Edenhurst care home in Nottingham, a business run by her family for generations.
"Unfortunately with the current situation it's made me have to make a decision... The fact is that I can't return to Liverpool until a risk isn't posed on the care home," she told the club's website https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/women/401469-sophie-bradley-auckland-why-my-liverpool-career-is-on-hold.
"We've got 24 people to look after but now we've got 24 very vulnerable people because of the virus, which is spreading very quickly. The people we look after, it would be very dangerous if any of them were to catch it."
Bradley-Auckland said the care home has remained COVID-free with all staff members and residents testing negative.
Nearly 45,000 people in the United Kingdom have died due to the virus, including around 20,000 in care homes. The government announced on Thursday that people would soon be able to visit relatives in care homes as lockdown measures were eased.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
