FAI MEDICAL DIRECTOR Dr Alan Byrne backed the majority of Irish footballers’ call for testing before organised training and competition resumes.

A PFAI survey last week reported that 92% of players were in favour of undergoing Covid-19 tests before returning to training and playing in the Airtricity League.

Dr Byrne admits that there is no certainty over when football can return to our fields, but he is willing to plan around 8 June, when the government is scheduled to enact phase 2 of easing restrictions. That phase allows for team training in small groups where social distance can be maintained.

While Dr Byrne, who sits on the government’s new Return to Sport expert panel, adds that it will likely not be feasible to offer widespread tests to all players, having the evidence during initial tentative steps could be invaluable.

“That’s a really important bit of information, to test players two weeks before they return to training and one week,” Dr Byrne said in a video released by the FAI this evening.

“Because if they return to training hastily and someone was asymptomatic but positive. we wouldn’t know when we start into a group format of training whether the (positive but asymptomatic) player joined the training and was responsible for passing it on.”

That level of testing, Dr Byrne says, would build a helpful data set while also giving peace of mind to players, support staff and their families.

“What we are attempting to do is return football at an acceptable risk, because it’s important for the players and staff that work in football. Then you expand it out and say: ‘the risk is x. perhaps no more risky than going to the supermarket, the golf club or going out to social distance in a restaurant’.

“We all have opinions, but just because we have an opinion doesn’t mean it’s true. We have to prove to ourselves and to people who participate in our game that it is safe to return.”