Gillingham manager Steve Evans insists no player will be forced to play if they are uncomfortable about doing so.

A June 1 date would be the earliest any professional sport can resume in England, and there is still a big question over whether the Football League can return to finish the season, but the Gills are ready regardless.

If they play again in June, it will be under the government’s second phase of their road map to exit lockdown, and would mean playing in behind closed door matches with rigorous testing.

Evans - who has taken a substantial pay-cut during lockdown - is ready to go back to work with the players but won’t be pressuring anyone to join him.

Speaking before the new guidelines were introduced, the Gills boss was asked if a player would be expected to play, regardless.

“Mentally you have to be right,” said the Scot.

“I don’t think it is a collective thing, I think it is an individual thing. It may hurt the team, it may be one of our better players, it may be a squad player, it could be anyone.

“The Professional Footballers’ Association, the League Managers’ Association and the Football Association all spend money on tackling mental illness and stuff and this is a big test.

“If a kid is saying to me ‘gaffer, I am really worried about this’ then I would have to take them out. I am not going to force a footballer to come to work and play on the basis of this virus.

“I am ready to work, my players are ready to work, but I would think privately some of these young men’s family would have concerns until we hear further medical evidence that we are good to go.”

The Football League have spent some time investigating how testing procedures for coronavirus will work if they get the green light to resume action.

Prior to the weekend there were reports that the EFL would be scrapping the season but a glimmer of light has emerged following the government’s new phased exit from lockdown.

Much will depend on whether the EFL can get their testing procedure in place but even Evans - who is keen to finish the season - admits there could be complications.

He said: “Imagine a scenario, we are all tested, we are all clear, we train for two or three weeks, we are ready to go, then one player has the symptoms on the Friday before our first game.

“It means all of us and everyone we have come into contact with are isolating for 14 days. It would mean we couldn’t play Fleetwood, Coventry too, or Rotherham (the next three teams on Gills’ original fixture list). That would just be us, not allowing for any other team.

“We have to do it with extreme caution and thought, with regard to the players and staff.

“We need to be pretty damn careful but if I get the medical people telling me from higher levels we are good to go, I will be on the training ground, that is the way I am.

“I am missing football more than people can imagine. Football runs my life. I am a manager that watches four or five games a week, I am a manager who goes into his apartment in Gillingham and doesn't go home for three weeks, I am that manager.

"I love my players to be focussed and dedicated and most of them are, if not them all.

“We have a plan in place to isolate the training, meaning it is apart, where we sit people to change and get ready, we have got plans in place if we start, and games that we would play, but it’s all maybes at the moment because we don’t know.”

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