Former Brechin City manager Michael O'Neill warns the cost of coronavirus tests makes sticking to protocol a "non-starter" for lower league clubs.
The SPFL season was declared over after being shut down since March, with clubs focused on resuming next season.
Premiership clubs have been given the green light to begin training on Thursday but the lower leagues are still in limbo.
In order to allow for a safe resumption players will have to be regularly tested, and O'Neill doesn't think that's realistic for part-time teams.
He told BBC Scotland : "I don't mean to be harsh, but for me, it's a non-starter.
"The cost of testing we are doing twice a week at Stoke is approaching five figures. That amounts to probably about 50% of a lot of clubs' weekly budget in the Premiership.
"I think it's going to be extremely difficult, or nigh on impossible, for clubs to be able to do this.
"In week one, we were bringing players in groups of five, half an hour apart, we were doing a 75 minute session that was taking us four-and-a-half hours to get through it
"I just can't see, having been manager of Brechin, that a club at that level could do it. The only way to do it is not as stringently, which obviously increases the risk."
