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A little apprehensively and with a variety of safety precautions implemented, almost all the PSL clubs have maintained the training sessions of their Absa Premiership and GladAfrica squads in spite of the clampdown of fixtures generally because of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, players involved in subsidiary, reserve league and development squads have found themselves in enforced hibernation as clubs have trimmed their activities in line with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent policy proclamation on steps to fight the worldwide health crisis.

“We are doing everything possible to aid the government’s battle with coronavirus,” explained a PSL official, “but the League’s Board of Governors, in line with the nationwide importance of completing the Absa Premiership and GladAfrica Leagues and Nedbank Cup by what it is hoped will be June 30 at the latest, it is essential for players to remain in a state of fitness as they wait on standby for a resumption of games.”

At the same time, The PSL has implored all the clubs to follow standard and elementary procedures in the war against the coronavirus, limiting gatherings at training sessions to 100 people, washing hands consistently for a standard period of 20 seconds with soap and other clinical protections, avoid shaking hands and limiting direct contact as much as possible.

In spite of this the PSL remains in a state of uneasy concern in keeping with the country as a whole, with no signs of coronavirus victims decreasing – in fact, the number is systematically going up and up.

Unless the trend is reversed to allow back spectators, the PSL will be faced with a number of options, none of them pleasant, with games played in front of empty stadiums to meet the current 30 June season-ending deadline or extending the deadline the likeliest prospects in an increasingly unmanageable situation.

Calling off the Absa Premiership, the Nedbank Cup and the GladAfrica competitions for the 2019/20 season would seem, as one official described it, “a prospect to ghastly to contemplate.” – Sport24.