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'No alternative' but to suspend season, says Bruce
Steve Bruce feels there is “no alternative” but to postpone Newcastle United’s Premier League fixture against Sheffield United on Saturday and suspend the entire English football campaign for the time being in light of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Premier League are to hold an emergency club meeting on Friday morning, with the suspension of the season a possibility after Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi both tested positive for the virus.
The prospect of playing games behind closed doors has also been mooted in recent weeks, though Bruce insists that “the only viable solution” is to bring things to a complete halt for now, with 596 cases of the virus having been confirmed in the UK as of Thursday night.
“It’s strange and difficult times for everybody, not just those involved with football,” he said. “It’s something we’re all shaking our heads at. It’s quite incredible. We’ve prepared for the game; people talk about ‘behind closed doors’, but if we ever play football it’s for one thing – the supporters. And the welfare of them obviously comes before anything. It’s a difficult situation for all, and we’ll obviously await the phone call in the next couple of hours and see where we’re at.
“It’s all about the supporters, and their welfare is more important than anything. The idea of playing in front of nobody doesn’t appeal at all. For me, in my opinion, you suspend it and wait until you get the all clear. I think it’s the only viable solution to it. Now, when you’ve got players and managers who are affected by it, how are they going to play their games? I don’t think there’s any alternative.”
At the time of writing, Bruce was still planning on taking training with his Magpies players as usual on Friday morning, though he was quick to admit that the picture is changing all the time.
“We’ll prepare as normal, as we’ve prepared all week,” he said. “Obviously we all understand there’s a Premier League meeting this morning, so we’ll have to be governed by them and see what they say. Up until yesterday, we were pretty convinced the game was going ahead. The last 24 hours has been the concern – the breaking news of a Premier League manager being infected and now you’ve got players being infected too. I can’t see any alternative but to suspend it and we’ll see where we are in a few weeks.”
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