Dave Seddon's Preston North End press view: Football's return getting closer but not quite as we know it

It seems longer – an absolute age in fact – since March 7 when Preston North End last played.

In the days that followed, football debated whether to close down, wrestled with its conscience and eventually came to the right conclusion to suspend the season.

To think, football was initially only paused until April 3, then to April 30, then indefinitely.

Did any of us really think then we’d only be preparing to restart on June 20?

Some will say that is too soon, others view it as being the right time for those first steps back to some semblance of normality.

Like society in general, the football landscape has changed dramatically in the last three months.

Think back to Preston’s last away game at Fulham on February 29.

That Saturday morning, 2,900 North End supporters headed to London without a moment’s thought.

It will be some time yet before such volumes of fans can gather together in a common cause.

The ‘norm’ for the time being will be empty grounds, substitutes and coaching staff wearing face masks, players bumping elbows to celebrate goals and tapping boots with the referee as a mark of respect beforehand.

Atmosphere will be nil, it will be like the old reserve-team matches played in big stadiums where every shout on the pitch would echo around the empty grounds.

It is a necessity for now, the only way games can be allowed to resume.

However, there will be a time when we can be together in football grounds again. Science, medicine and above all, confidence, will see an eventual return to crowds, atmosphere and a touch of normality.

A key aspect in football getting ready to return is the twice-weekly testing of players and backroom staff for Covid-19.

It is vital they are tested and monitored, in society too as testing will be the way out of this pandemic.

I’ve been a bit uneasy with how the reaction has been to test results being released.

The EFL and Premier League have been transparent about test results. After every round of tests, the results are made public – the number of tests done and how many came back positive.

Neither organisation chooses to name individual players who have tested positive or their clubs.

Rightly so, they leave that choice to the clubs involved.

Last weekend when the EFL released the results of the late-week tests, North End revealed Jayden Stockley had tested positive and was self-isolating.

They did things slightly differently when news of a second positive test leaked out earlier this week.

For starters, such leaks shouldn’t occur – these are confidential tests which go to the labs of an independent company.

When a national newspaper revealed the positive test a day ahead of the EFL giving out results, North End were hamstrung in that they couldn’t react to it publicly.

The EFL do not allow clubs to comment until they are in a position to publish all the latest data.

With clubs testing on different days, there is always going to be a slight lag when it comes to announcing the collective results.

On Wednesday evening when the EFL announced the latest results, PNE quickly confirmed the second positive test result but opted not to name the player due to medical confidentiality.

It must be assumed in such cases that players get a choice whether to be named by their club or not.

The initial story about the second positive test at Preston was focused on the line that players who had come into contact with the lad who had tested positive would also have to isolate.

And that, screamed the headline, would throw North End’s build-up plans into disarray.

The actual fact of the matter is that only players deemed to have come into close contact with the affected player for more than 15 minutes, have to go into self-isolation.

I noticed a couple of other incidents where the media have gone after individual clubs, chasing a similar line.

This shouldn’t be any sort of witch-hunt, nor should there be a stigma attached to any player who returns a positive test ahead of the season and during it.

The spread of Covid-19 shows it is easy to catch, however careful you are.

When two positive tests came back from Hull in the first round of testing, straight away a conspiracy theory started on social media that somehow this was deliberate as the Tigers had voiced a preference to curtail the season rather than play it to a finish.

Although I don’t agree with Hull’s view, the conspiracy theories were utter nonsense.

Hopefully the number of positive tests in the EFL and Premier League will be fewer and fewer as the weeks go on.

But it might take some time yet before every round of testing returns a zero.

Teams are now contact training and I’m sure that managers and coaches are being sensible in their approach to that step-up in the training regime.

They won’t have players glued to one another – contact training just means they are no longer restricted to working in small groups.

Shooting practice, shape work and possession can still be done with an element of social distancing.

There will be contact when tackling is involved and when players compete for a ball in training. But it will be brief.

Football is having to learn on its feet, just like every business is doing in this pandemic, just like we are all doing in our walks of life.

It was back on New Year’s Eve that coronavirus was officially recognised. Cast your mind back to then.

Could you imagine thinking that within a few months we’d see football in its current state? We’ve had to learn quickly.