'Premier League Clubs Given 'Restart Schedule' For Planned June 8th Return

The Premier League have sent out 'return schedules' to clubs as part of 'Project Restart' as England's top tier tries to get back under way on June 8th.

According to reports the second week of June is when the Premier League could return to action, after a few months without football, and now clubs have been sent more clear plans of how that will happen.

The Telegraph say that clubs have been told the timeline for the report and are hoping that next week's announcement by Boris Johnson will see some social distancing softened, allowing for training for begin on May 18th.

The government extended the nationwide lockdown by three weeks and that period is almost over, with Johnson to make an announcement next week on what happens next.

Should the May 7th announcement allow it players would get tested that weekend, May 9th and 10th, and could be back in training in small groups on May 11th.

Full training sessions would then start a week later and three weeks after that football, in theory, would resume being played, with 92 games left to play of the campaign and the end of July a likely deadline for the league to finish.

Training at Manchester City will look a lot different to this. Image: Manchester City

Plans for the return will be discussed further between clubs at the weekly Premier League meeting on Friday and amongst the proposals being discussed will be players wearing masks during training.

Players will be allowed in groups on no more than five initially, as happened in the Bundesliga, and they'll only be allowed inside the training blocks to use the toilets.

According to the Daily Mail the plans could be over before they really begin if the government decide to keep full lockdown going until June, which is a possibility.

The fear of a second wave of the virus is leading to caution over softening social distancing rules as the government don't want to have to implement similar measures later in the year again.

"The minute one player, one member of staff goes into intensive care, what are they going to do? They really are not sure."@GNev2 on if and when football can return in the UK.

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— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 29, 2020

Gary Neville has been amongst the most vocal of pundits suggesting that football shouldn't restart and on Wednesday questioned whether risking the health of footballers was worth it.

Even FIFA's medical chief Michel D'Hooghe has called for the sport to follow Ligue 1 and not return until September, a decision that was made by the French government.