Sports medicine leader promotes virus protocol

ROME (AP):

While football leagues around Europe are still debating whether and when to resume playing amid the coronavirus pandemic, the leader of the continent’s Federation of Sports Medicine Associations is calling for a detailed series of tests to clear athletes before they return to training.

Maurizio Casasco, who is also president of the Italian Federation of Sports Medicine, said guidelines recently published by his domestic federation should be extended for all of Europe – especially if UEFA intends to resume the Champions League and Europa League anytime soon.

“There needs to be a common protocol,” Casasco said in an interview with The Associated Press. “At both the national and European level, if there’s a competition being contested the rules have to be the same for everyone. … And not only for football but for all pro sports.”

The protocol developed by the Italian federation starts by dividing athletes into two categories: Group One for those who have already tested positive for the virus or shown symptoms associated with it; Group Two for those who haven’t tested positive, including athletes who were in contact with people who tested positive but who remained asymptomatic.

First, athletes in both groups will be tested for the virus. Athletes who test negative will also be tested for immunity – and athletes shown not to be immune will be retested every four days.

Athletes in Group One then have to pass strength tests while at rest, during and after physical exertion. Next up is a doppler echocardiogram, then a Holter monitor (a 24-hour echocardiogram), followed by spirometry breathing tests, a full range of blood exams, a lung X-ray and, finally, clearance that the athlete is no longer infected.

ATHLETES CLEARED FOR TRAINING

Once cleared for training, athletes in Group One would need to gradually increase their activity levels over a specially observed 15-day period.

Athletes in Group Two have fewer tests: strength, doppler echocardiogram, spirometry and blood.

The protocol was developed by an eight-person commission that included Ranieri Guerra, the assistant director general for the World Health Organization.

“It’s going to have a cost but I think it needs to be followed,” Casasco said. “We work with athletes but the rules need to be applied to all of team staff members, too. Anyone who comes into contact with the locker room: equipment managers, physical therapists, coaches, club managers. Everyone.”

At least 15 Serie A players have tested positive for COVID-19 and team physicians at Inter Milan, Fiorentina and Sampdoria have been hospitalised with the virus.

The Government-ordered lockdown in Italy is scheduled to expire after May 3, so Casasco suggested the protocol tests should begin May 4.

“You can’t start training until everyone has been tested; otherwise you risk creating a new hotspot,” he said. “And obviously, you can’t just gather everyone together to perform the tests. The protocol has to be performed individually before training resumes.”

So while football officials in Italy have discussed resuming training on May 4, perhaps in small groups at first, the protocol would require several more days before official practices could start.

Then, Casasco estimated, athletes would need “20 to 25 days” of training before competition can restart.

“The athletes are not completely at rest. They’re probably at about 40 per cent of their fitness, because they’re training at home,” he said. “It’s not like they’re sitting at the beach.”

Competition, of course, raises other risks by bringing athletes into contact with more people on road trips – even if they would likely play in empty stadiums.