Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard has come out to say that the club had ten or more players forced into quarantine during pre-season.
Lampard recently blasted UEFA’s decision to put Nations League fixtures ahead of the new season and detailed his club’s unsettled pre-season preparations.
According to him, the affected players were up to double figures at some point and it had a negative impact on the training that could be done.
He added that he had to even rely on international teams and games to get his boys fit and he is pleased with the end result thus far.
His words, “It’s been disruptive,”
“In lots of ways, I’m very fortunate. I know we’re bringing in players we wanted to bring in and already we have a strong squad here.”
“But we had a lot of quarantine, I think at one point it was double figures. So that knocked a lot of the training we could do in that first week and then I lost pretty much all the players to international break so I haven’t been able to work with them.”
“So you’ve had to rely on international teams and games getting them fit. I’ve got a great relationship with all the managers of the players that go away like that so that hasn’t been a problem, but we haven’t actually had them in our hands, the players.”
“So it’s been tough in a way but we have to forget that, it’s done, we’re together now. We know what’s in front of us, we know what games are coming up, we’re very excited to get started and that’s a good feeling. That’s the feeling I have and I think that’s the feeling the squad has.”
“I have addressed it with the players already,”
“I think it is something we all need addressing; this is a strange time in everybody’s life over the last months.
“We have seen that with how the government have spoken in some of the wording and messaging that has come out in the last week and I think it is important that we all have a little check as it is human nature slightly to relax as the situation changes.
“We will all do our best on that front. We all know the situation we are in, the procedures and protocols and we will try and adhere to them as much as we can considering a physical-contact team sport that we are doing.”
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