Carra insistent over training return; Redknapp issues warning

Matt Stead
Jamie Carragher Chelsea

Jamie Carragher has compared the Premier League’s planned return to a collective comeback from injury instead of another pre-season.

Despite the Premier League suffering an apparent setback in their hopes to resume the season, plans are still afoot to play again by mid-June.

Managers have expressed particular concern about how little training that would allow their squads before playing again.

Carragher is unsure how long players would need in terms of weeks, but believes the challenge is more akin to returning from an injury rather than coming back for pre-season.

“I keep hearing how long it takes to get back up to speed, how fit you need to be,” he told Sky Sports.

“I always liken it – this is not like going back to pre-season – I see this as more like an injury you’d have in the middle of a season.

“Players have been keeping fit. They’ve had their programmes. Yes, they will need time to get up to speed, but it’s not a pre-season type of thing.

“Whatever the timeframe is, it’s the same for everyone. There’s no doubt managers will want more weeks to prepare and they will want everything absolutely perfect.”

Fellow pundit Jamie Redknapp warned not to “expect” as high a standard as usual when the game does come back.

“Two months off now for players, that’s a huge amount of time,” he said. “When they do come back it’s going to be played at a totally different pace to what we expect. It will be disappointing.

“Players are mentally switched off, as well. It will be difficult for them. They’re gonna want to get back to playing and when you get a taste you want to do it more and more.

“I think it’ll take a lot longer than people think. We need to be careful not to expect too much of players right now.

“I can’t wait for it to happen but don’t expect these players to come out firing just like before the Premier League finished.”

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