HIBERNIAN boss Jack Ross has told his players they could be back on the training pitch as early as June 10.
Ross, who has been placed on furlough along with the majority of the club’s staff, has cited the timeframe in a bid to give his stars some ‘clarity’ regarding when they could be on the grass amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell and his SPFL counterpart Neil Doncaster hope to convince the Scottish Government to allow some form of training from that date.
It has already been announced that restrictions on fishing, golf and tennis will be eased on May 28.
And further discussions with Scotland’s minister for public health, sport and wellbeing Joe FitzPatrick as well as national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch regarding the resumption of football will take place in the coming days.
And Ross has his fingers crossed that he could be safely back to work in less than three weeks’ time.
Ross revealed: “We have used the 10th of June as a date for us because we needed to use something. We needed something to plan towards.
“We are using that as a potential point at which the players could get back to training.
“That helps them because they have been desperate for some clarity. By their nature, footballers are used to having that structure to their lives and their year and it’s unusual for them not to have that.”
Ross, however, admits the exact start date for Hibs’ return will depend on when the 2020/21 Premiership campaign is due to get underway – something which remains up in the air.
He has also confirmed that the training will be ‘phased’ as the club takes a safety first approach.
Ross told BBC Scotland: “We will need clarity on when the start of the season because normally you would have the start date and work back from there for [pre-season].
“It’s easy to say ‘10th of June, great’, but if the football isn’t starting until mid-August then thats too long.
“Any time between June the 10th and 18th would be what we’d hope for, but it would be a phased return in terms of what we would be able to do and, in terms of how quickly we worked through those phases, still has not been clarified.”
