Manchester City star Raheem Sterling believes players need up to five weeks of full training before returning to match action.
The Premier League - along with all professional football in England - has been suspended since mid-March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The top-flight had been hoping to resume the stalled 2019-20 season on June 12 as part of 'Project Restart', with the 20 clubs set to vote on a return to group training on Monday.
However, June 19 is now generally believed to be a more realistic start date, with managers insisting during a video call earlier this week that they would need at least a month in training with their squads before playing matches.
That is a view shared by City and England forward Sterling, who stressed the need for proper preparation during a Zoom chat with USA Women's striker Megan Rapinoe on his Youtube channel.
He said: "You can't come back in with one and a half or two weeks (of training).
"You'd need a full four to five weeks, especially if you're going to go back into competition, when you're literally paid to win. You do need to do that preparation - you can't just go straight in."
While Sterling is wary of the risks of returning too soon, he added that he is looking forward to getting back out onto the pitch after implementing a routine to cope with initial struggles relating to the coronavirus lockdown.
"The beginning (of lockdown) was definitely weird then I started to say to myself I can't keep doing this, I can't just be in this dark room playing my Call of Duty for six or seven hours, I just got a little schedule in," he said.
"I felt lost for the first couple of weeks but then it just flew by. I can't wait to get back out there.
"We've had a lot of gym sessions on Zoom, we've had our programmes being sent over to us, so I've been trying my best to keep up with the plan."
