Coronavirus: South African teams must continue training – Khoza

Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Dr Irvin Khoza has made it clear players should continue reporting for training at their respective clubs despite the suspension of midweek and weekend matches due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

According to Khoza, there are still many factors that should be discussed before a permanent decision can be taken on whether or not the league should be suspended.   

“We are suspending the fixtures for this week – it means they must continue training because there are still a lot of things that must happen [before teams can be told to stop training],” Khoza told the media.

The PSL boss further revealed the league’s head of medical Dr Lervasin Pillay is addressing measures of how best they can deal with the situation – whether or not it’s safe for the players to stop training.  

“Whether we suspend or continue with the games, the PSL head of medical [Dr. Lervasin Pillay] is busy dealing with measures of how best we make sure that even if we take other decisions. There are things that are strictly followed by everyone in football,” he said. 

Pillay was given the platform to share his thoughts on the coronavirus, revealing the illness is misunderstood.   

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“The problem is people are misunderstanding the virus – it’s a droplet-spread, it’s not sweat-spread. So, everyone’s thinking, ‘Oh, you’re sweating on me and I’ll get the virus’,” said Pillay. 

“It’s a droplet-spread virus. So, sweating won’t give you the virus – it’s if someone coughs on your face, etc.

“But that’s where some of the challenges come in trying to make these decisions,” he added.