Andros Townsend praises ‘incredible’ Crystal Palace for helping players through lockdown

The Premier League is due to resume on 17 June – with Palace scheduled to travel to Bournemouth the following weekend – after being halted in March

Nick Mashiter
Saturday 30 May 2020 13:06 BST
Comments
Coronavirus: How has sport been affected?

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Andros Townsend has saluted Crystal Palace for ensuring the squad were not left in the dark.

The winger praised the Eagles for keeping the players informed throughout their enforced break because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Palace returned to contact training this week after top flight clubs voted to step up their comeback.

The Premier League action is due to resume on 17 June – with Palace scheduled to travel to Bournemouth the following weekend – after being halted in March.

Townsend told Football Focus: “I support any player who doesn’t want to return to training, they have their reasons and may have health issues. But I can only speak about Palace and they have been incredible.

“We’ve had regular Zoom conference calls, they have relaid every bit of information. Everyone was confident we were returning to a safe environment.

“When we got the green light to return to contact training we were all delighted and now the hard work starts.

“When you are at home for seven, eight weeks and only mixing with people from your own household it’s difficult. You forget people are normal, you’ve been treating people like they’ve had the virus.

“When you go back to training you don’t want to get too near your team-mates but as the days went on and the tests came back all clear slowly we got back to the confidence our team-mates are healthy and safe.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in