WITH ALL football currently on hold and no return date in sight, a health expert from the University of Edinburgh has suggested that footballers should wear face masks on the pitch once fixtures resume. 

Current lockdown precautions are set to continue until May 7 at the earliest, but should the government ease restrictions after that date, the league’s governing bodies are evaluating a set of options for how best to restart the top divisions.

Restarting

Dr Rowland Kao, a Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science, believes that face masks worn by footballers offer one possible solution if the government considers restarting games behind closed doors. 

“It would seem sensible to put as many precautions as you could in place.”

Dr Rowland Kao

“It’s unclear how much protection those masks would be, but it would seem sensible to put as many precautions as you could in place,” said Kao. “If you have got 300-500 people coming together [for a match behind closed doors], there’s an opportunity for multiple infections to occur.”

Scepticism remains over just how much protection is offered by face masks. Kao maintains they are more beneficial to other people than the actual wearer, but surely  the more pertinent question is whether significant supplies of PPE, as well as testing kits, should be directed towards staging football matches when there is such demand from health services.