Renfrew boss Colin Clark is planning to bring in extra players this season to try to combat the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘Frew’s West of Scotland Conference B campaign kicks off in just 15 days’ time when they welcome Royal Albert to New Western Park.
And Clark admits he’s considering signing more players than usual over the next few weeks in order to ensure he has enough players to make a positive start to their competitive season.
He told Express Sport : “We’re looking forward to starting back up but it is going to be a very demanding start to the season.
“We’re playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday for the first few weeks and it looks like the league are trying to cram in as many games as possible early on.
“If we’re honest though, looking at the way the figures are going currently there’s going to be a lot of boys from every team that are going to have to isolate, either because they’ve caught it or because they’ve been contact traced and told to do so.
“It’s absolutely rife at the moment and the infection rate is so high.
“We can’t do anything about that, but it really is going to test the squad depth of every team.
“We need to bring in a few more players anyway, but we may well bring in two or three more than normal just to make sure we don’t get caught short.
“At the end of the day we’re going to have to deal with covid isolation periods in this season. The virus isn’t just going to disappear.”
After a 5-1 loss in their most recent friendly fixture against Bonnyton Thistle last Saturday, Renfrew’s pre-season preparation continues tomorrow with a home clash against local rivals Neilston.
Clark revealed he hopes to have some long-term absentees back in action at the start of the upcoming campaign, with several players having suffered cruciate ligament injuries over the last two seasons, as well as bringing in some players who may yet become available once their clubs kick back into action.
He said: “We suffered a really bad spell of injuries last season and a few from the one before.
“We’ve got a few just back from cruciate injuries and we’ve got to be loyal to these boys because they were injured playing for us.
“We can’t just cast them aside, they need to have the opportunity to play their way back into the team.
“Ryan Borris unfortunately suffered a very serious injury and he hasn’t been able to make it back to playing, which is a real blow for him. He has come onto the coaching staff though, which is great for us because he’s exactly the kind of guy we want around the place.
“We know we need more players, but it’s especially tough at the moment because there were a lot of clubs that didn’t compete last year.
“We’re not sure yet whether certain players are starting back at those clubs or whether they’re open to moving on.
“We’ll be doing our best over the next few weeks to strengthen the squad when we can.”
