Mikel Arteta has confirmed his players and their families are worried about the recent coronavirus outbreak.
The virus has forced matches in some countries to be abandoned and games in Italy have been played behind closed doors as the Italian authorities attempt to stop the spread of the virus further.
Premier League clubs have taken measures to ensure that the virus isn’t spread around their vicinity with Newcastle United reportedly banning their players from shaking each other hands.
Arteta was speaking about the global epidemic that started in China and admitted that his players were worried about the safety of their family members around the globe as his team is made up of several international players.
(We are) not anxious, obviously we read the information, it’s all the time in the media,” he said as quoted by TeamTalk. “Our families are concerned, we have a lot of foreign players with foreign families in different countries so it’s something that is on a daily basis.
“The club and the authorities are in contact every day. We are following all the instructions from the club doctor.
“So far the protocols we have been doing are enough but obviously don’t know to what stage it is going to develop.
“We’ve seen in other countries the difficult decisions they have to make around it to protect the situation so we have to wait and see and be guided by them.”
The entire Premier League season could be suspended if the virus outbreak gets any worse in England, but the nation is doing its best to stop that from happening and football fans around the world are praying that a cure for the virus is found soon.
Who else noticed the fist bumping some players used instead of proper handshaking in the pre game and pointless ritual tonight? Only ALL OF US, I would have thought.
Theee must be VERY serious doubt that our football season will even complete itself this year. Likewise, a serious doubt over all international competitions and soon, even all crowds being allowed to gather in stadiums at all. I can see no obvious alternative to this being in statute VERY SOON now. It is the obvious and logical next step by government and who can doubt its veracity!
Bill Shankly once said, in irony(one hopes) that “football is more important than life and death”. Boy, how wrong that was!
Yup, that is coming, Olympics will be called off as well.