Luton chief insists it's 'business as usual' for Town players during coronavirus outbreak

Town boss Graeme Jones is trying to keep it ‘business as usual’ amongst his squad despite the Championship season being suspended until April 3 at the earliest last week due to the coronavirus outbreak.

With a number of teams up and down the country having to cancel training to allow their players to self-isolate, the Hatters squad are still being put through their paces at the Brache by Jones and his backroom staff.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the Luton chief said: “It’s just business as usual, without the games.

“We’re in Monday, Tuesday, off Wednesday, in Thursday, Friday, as we stand, but it’s so fluid.

“It changed from Friday to Monday, and I’m sure it’s going to change from Monday to Friday of this week, so I’m just waiting to be updated.

“It was a bit of a club decision to continue to train, keep levels of fitness up, so we were in yesterday (Monday), were in today (Tuesday), had two really good sessions with the boys.

“The thoughts behind that is these boys are social animals by nature.

“Young, vibrant men, and I’m sure they would think about having a coffee in a Starbucks somewhere.

“One, we’re reducing that risk, we want to protect them and their families, so they’re in an environment where they’re getting regular checks every day and also moderate training helps your immune system.

“We’re making sure we’re still controlling, certainly one or two meals a day from a nutritional point of view, so that’s the main thinking behind it from a Luton Town point of view.”

On what has been put in place to make training as safe as possible for the players, Jones continued: “We are trying to social distance ourselves as much as we possibly can.

“The boys are in at 10.30 for an 11 o’clock start, we’re trying to avoid any confined spaces, so breakfast isn’t provided, even though lunch is.

“We’ve spread the players out across four changing rooms now, and when you’re out on that big open pitch with fresh air it’s a place where I’m not saying it’s safe, but it’s a safer place than confined spaces.

“So it has changed, that moderate training mode is just to make sure we don’t detrain in any way, shape or form and we haven’t so far.

“We’ll keep the boys ticking over and keep that physical level up and also help make sure their immune system is as strong as it can be if any of the boys got infected.

“I’m not a medical expert, so I’m going off the same information as everyone else in the country.

“I’m listening to Boris Johnson’s press conferences, obviously we’ve got a club policy that we’re taking regular checks of the boys temperatures, any symptoms, that type of thing.

“They’ve got a questionnaire they’ve got to fill in every day, so it has changed the way we work and that’s where we are.”

Should that change though, with country’s like Spain and France on lock-down, meaning no-one is allowed out of the house, Jones will have to review the players' situations, as he said: “At the minute, they would be allowed to go out and jog, that’s what Boris Johnson said, or go for a run.

“So if that was legally okay we’d encourage it as we want to keep those levels of fitness up and then it’s what kind of gym equipment have you got?

“If it’s a total lock-down like Spain, you’re not allowed on the street, I wouldn’t say every one of our players would be in the privileged position where they’ve got their own gym or let alone their own bike or own treadmill.

“It’s a case by case situation we’d have to review if it came to that.”

However, Town have so far reported no concerns of the coronavirus amongst their squad yet, as Jones said: “It’s a clean bill of health, so while you’ve got a clean bill of health you’re thinking, ‘lets preserve that and keep working’ and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The boss also confirmed that Town’s trio of loan players, Izzy Brown, James Bree and Luke Bolton have all stayed with the club, saying: “They’ve followed Luton guidelines.

“Nobody’s gone back, and that’s what we’ve decided to do.”