Jamie Redknapp: Premier League players may quit training due to coronavirus

Former Premier League and England footballer and current pundit Jamie Redknapp has warned that players may leave their clubs rather than train and play amid the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, The Athletic's David Ornstein wrote how Watford captain Troy Deeney and some teammates were refusing to train at team facilities after the club was responsible for three positive coronavirus tests.

As noted by Alan Smith of Football.London, Chelsea midfielder and France international N'Golo Kante remains on compassionate leave due to his unwillingness to train during the uncontrolled virus outbreak.

While speaking on Sky Sports' "The Football Show" on Thursday, Redknapp warned other Premier League players will follow: 

"If you've got a squad of 22, 23 players and six or seven are not comfortable, they think they're putting their families at risk, how is that a fair competition? It becomes a real Premier League problem. It doesn't become fair.

"Some managers have come out now and said it's going to be a fair situation no matter what happens, but if you're going to lose three or four players, and Troy Deeney's the captain of Watford, that's not a fair competition.

"I do think it's going to get harder and harder, I think you're going to see more players coming out and saying they're not sure about playing, they're not sure about what's going on. So you've just got to take each incident in isolation.

"It's so difficult for players right now. A lot of them are keen to come and get started, but there will be others like N'Golo Kante who are nervous, and are looking at underlying health problems, and believe if they come back and give the virus to someone, how would they feel about that going forward?"

While June 12 remains the penciled-in date for the resumption of the Premier League campaign that ca me to a halt in March because of the pandemic, rumors continue to circulate the restart could be pushed back by at least a week because of concerns had by players. 

The German Bundesliga returned to action last weekend.