CHICAGO – The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced on Tuesday the next stage in its return to phased play protocol following Coronavirus could commence. This phase allows for small group training to begin under phase two.
NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird
“Following the advice and counsel of our medical advisors, the NWSL is pleased to be taking the next steps to safely return to competition.”
Group training will be limited to eight players who have to have passed a pre-training assessment. Part of that assessment will be a symptom and temperature screening. That doesn’t completely mitigate risk as an asymptomatic carrier would pass that, but it will help.
Teams will now also be allowed to use their weight, training, and meeting rooms. Beyond players, coaches, trainers, doctors, equipment managers, and sports scientists are entitled to attend training. For anyone to participate, they must pass the assessment and antigen and Antibody test, presumably three days before the session.
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NWSL also provided a date of Saturday, May 30th, for full team training. That can only happen after five days of small group training has been completed and won’t violate restrictions in the team’s state or city.
Players will be required to arrive in their training kit, and everyone attending will be required to wear masks.
The protocol from NWSL emphasizes that physicians will be the ones who have the call on when each team advances to each stage. As such, the league will only restart when all team’s medical personnel agree it is safe to do so.
Orlando Pride will start training straight away, but that puts players and staff at unnecessary risk. Florida’s COVID-19 outbreak isn’t slowing down with over 51,000 positive tests for residents and over 2,300 deaths. The state has reopened before there was any decline in the peak. Results from Memorial Day weekend have not yet processed. Orange County currently has 1,797 cases and 39 deaths. It’s too soon for any sport to go ahead in Florida, but to stay competitive, the Pride will head back to training earlier than they should.
Florida Soccer Report 