Manchester City's preparations for the season have hit a hitch even before the first team players have come back as Covid-19 continues to be rife across the country.
Pep Guardiola was restricted at the beginning of last season by three of his first team players testing positive ahead of their opening match against Wolves, with Ilkay Gundogan suffering particularly badly from the virus.
Almost a year on, professional football is once again not immune from wider society as the Blues have had to shut part of their training ground after an outbreak in the academy. All 50 or so players and staff who reported for an Under-18s and Under-23s camp had tested negative, yet regular testing through the week then flagged some positives.
The precautionary move to bring all those who didn't need to isolate back to the City Football Academy appears to have backfired, with further positive cases forcing the club to send everyone involved with the academy pre-season home for 10 days and deep-clean their building in an attempt to break their circuit and avoid any cross-contamination for the first team.
Read more: Manchester City shut academy building after Covid cases hit double figures
If it works, the only negative consequence for Guardiola will be a lack of options for the first pre-season friendly for the first team at home to Preston on July 27. With most of his senior squad still not back by then, he had been intending to use plenty of academy players but those that are available will barely have had any training with him.
The fact that such drastic measures have already needed to be taken by one of the biggest and richest clubs shows the continuing worry for City and the rest of the Premier League though that Covid-19 could continue to play havoc with schedules.
In this 'pingdemic' phase across the country, there is nothing to suggest there won't be more repeats of the farce at the European Championship where two England players had to self-isolate for having a chat with a Scotland player who subsequently tested positive - yet no Scotland players did.
And with clubs allowing their players to holiday anywhere they like while they rest up from the summer international tournaments - as they should - there are going to be plenty of nervous waits to ensure that all of those returning stars can be safely incorporated into the bubble without breaching it.
From a financial perspective at least, City's view as a club of the impact of Covid-19 on the game has long been that it would only be an influence up to the end of the 2020/21 season and that summer transfer window.
As far as the actual game on the grass goes though, Guardiola and the rest of the league may have to put up with disruptions for some time yet.
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