Serie A: Torino president frets over potential injuries to players when league resumes

The president of Serie A club Torino, Urbano Cairo, is worried that players will be exposed to injury if the league restarts next month as expected. Cairo highlighted that full training had not yet started at most clubs, even though everything was pointing to a restart on 13 June or 20 June, depending on the Italian government’s final decision which will be made on 28 May. [caption id=“attachment_8335351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] “It looks like we’re off again,” he told state broadcaster Rai in a radio interview. “The real issue is that it will be very difficult for the players to get back on track… after so many months at home, they are at risk of injury. “In fact, they’re going slowly at the moment because they’re afraid of getting hurt. The restart is quite complicated, not least because football is a contact sport.” Cairo said that, like the other 19 Serie A clubs, Torino had voted in favour of restarting but that he had some doubts, such as playing behind closed doors. “As already happened in Germany, the championship in Italy will also restart without an audience. And behind closed doors it’s not a great show,” he added. Cairo was also unhappy with the Italian football federation (FIGC) decision that Serie A should finish by 20 August and the new season should start on 1 September. “Let’s remember that the players should be given two or three weeks’ holiday, plus they’ll need another month for physical preparation. This means that if we finish on 20 August, we’ll start again on 20 October,” he said. The government said on Tuesday that full group training could start this week but most clubs said Thursday they had not yet received the official medical protocol and were still training either individually or in small groups. “We will restart training in larger groups in the new few days,” said Serie A leaders Juventus, adding that the entire squad, including backup staff, had returned negative tests.