PUT AN END TO THE COVID CONFUSION
Hibs gaffer Ross wants rules put in place when players test positive and insists all clubs would accept them
JACK ROSS wants an end to Covid confusion over when games should or shouldn’t be postponed and insisted there would be no doubt if it was injuries ruling players out.
Hibs’ Premiership clash away to St Mirren goes ahead after Buddies’ first-choice keeper Jak Alnwick tested positive on Wednesday before the Paisley club confirmed a second player had caught coronavirus 24 hours later.
Saints postponed their scheduled pre-match press conference yesterday before they were told the game could go ahead.
Ross, whose team were forced to take on Aberdeen without Alex Gogic after the Cypriot produced an inconclusive then negative test, has called for set procedures to deal with this type of scenario so everyone knows where they stand, whether they agree or not.
He said: “There are certain hard and fast things that happen in football and you know they would disrupt your plans, even during a match.
“Whether we agreed with the rules or not, I think we would get used to them pretty quickly. It’s a bit like the five-sub rule this year. I didn’t want it but it’s there.
“So you don’t then throw the toys out of the pram. You deal with it andan it’s fine. Nine subs named,na you can use fivfive. Once a rule is put in place and clubs acceptac it you make peace with it. “But we’re not quite there at thisth stage, obviously. “If you look at players being unavailableunavai then it shouldnshouldn’t be any different differ from any normal circumstances where a player is maybe unavailable due to food poisoning or a sickness bug, flu, hamstring injury, whatever.
“If you are without five players, then you get on with it. That happens.
“That is more a question for a wider group, in terms of whether there is too great a risk of transmission, and I don’t know the answer to that.
“But from a football point of view, once we know there is no risk from a health point of view, then I don’t see why it should be any different to being without players through illness or injury or any other reasons.
“Going back to normal circumstances, if you are without a player or two, that would never have an impact on a game going ahead.
“In fact, I’m thinking back and I don’t know how many times in recent history a game has been postponed because players were unavailable.”
Meanwhile, new signing Jamie Murphy revealed he got the Hibs lowdown from former Rangers team-mate Greg Docherty and the two elder McGinn brothers before swapping Ibrox for Leith.
The winger has joined on a season-long loan, which will become permanent next summer. Docherty enjoyed his own successful loan spell at Easter Road but didn’t return on a longer-term basis, despite Hibs’ best attempts.
But the former Hamilton man, now with Hull City, made it an easy decision for Murphy to follow in his footsteps.
Murphy said: “I spoke to Greg Docherty about the move and I spoke to both the McGinns who are here.
“They gave me a good idea of what it’s like here and what Hibs are trying to achieve.
“Greg could not speak highly enough about the place and I still speak to him on a regular basis.”