Exclusive: Eight Leeds players at Thorp Arch today as rules flouted
Eight Leeds United players trained at Thorp Arch today in a clear contravention of Government rules and football protocol, Football Insider can reveal.
Training grounds at all clubs across the UK have been shut for the last three weeks to stem the spread of Coronavirus and ensure social distancing guidelines are not flouted.
But a Leeds source has told Football Insider that eight members of the squad – all of whom were believed to be senior players – were put through their paces at Thorp Arch at around the same time.
It is believed Marcelo Bielsa’s backroom team were checking on the fitness of the players, who have been training individually at home for most of the last month.
Nevertheless, the move is likely to trigger fierce criticism given the strict Government guidelines for dealing with the pandemic.
Barring those listed as key workers, people should only leave their home “alone or with members of your household” while the UK is under lockdown measures.
Jose Mourinho was forced to apologise earlier this week after being filmed holding a training session with Tanguy Ndombele in a public park.
Two other Tottenham stars, Davinson Sanchez and Ryan Sessegnon, were also pictured running alongside one another alongside a road.
Leeds’ controversial move comes just a day after EFL chairman Rick Parry wrote to all 71 clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two telling them not to resume group training before 16 May.
Football League clubs have been advised to give their players time off now in advance of the proposed resumption.
The aim is for matches to resume in the second or third week of June and for the season, including the play-offs, to be completed across 56 days.
Like other elite clubs, Leeds’s training base has been used over the last three weeks only for injured players requiring hands-on rehabilitation.
Jean-Kevin Augustin and long-term absentee Adam Forshaw have both been undergoing one-on-one treatment.
In other Leeds United news, a blockbuster club deal is on hold even though the contract has been ‘signed’.