‘Don’t know how to deal with it’ – Exclusive: Pundit reacts to Leeds chief’s claim
Michael Brown insists that Leeds United must be “extra, extra safe” amid the Coronavirus pandemic after chief executive Angus Kinnear spoke about the potential of positive tests.
The former Leeds midfielder, speaking exclusively to Football Insider assistant editor Russell Edge, believes clubs are still in the dark about how to best manage the situation after squads returned to training.
Kinnear, writing in his programme notes for the Yorkshire Evening Post, insisted that “incident rates are manageable” and compared the issue of isolated players to those missing through injury.
The Daily Mail reported last week that the Whites had a positive result from an individual at Thorp Arch, although there has been no official statement from the club.
Brown admits that clubs are in the dark over how to deal with the situation and suggests the contagious nature of the virus means it is more serious than just losing a member of staff when isolating.
Brown told Football Insider: “I just think it’s new, it’s something new that we don’t know how to deal with it – it becomes the isolation side of it, the whole club, who’s been in contact with that person.
“It’s a little bit different and a little bit new, medically, that we haven’t seen before and how to manage it, how we go about it, I think that’s the thing that’s new.
“In a closed environment like a football club, you’ve got to be extra, extra safe but we’ve seen great precautions from the football clubs and it’s just a disease that can get anywhere.”
Kinnear told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “The media focus is now understandably on covering the twice-weekly virus test results.
“After more than four rounds of testing there should be a level of confidence that the incident rates are manageable, especially when you recognise that most squads manage a natural squad injury rate of 15 per cent.”
In other Leeds United news, Darren Bent has urged the club to go public after a claim from Phil Hay.