Test players for Covid-19 before league resumes - Medical expert advises

CAF and GFA Medical officer Dr Prince Pamboe is advising the Ghana Football Association to ensure players as well as all those involved in the game are tested for Covid-19 before the season restart.

The 2019/20 Ghana Premier League has been suspended since March 9 because of the global pandemic.

There is no set date for when the campaign will resume after 15 matches played in the first round and some outstanding fixtures left to be honoured. 

READ ALSO:  Dr Prince Pamboe wants 2019/20 Ghana Premier League season called off 

Ghana have been one of the African countries hardest hit by the Covid-19 crisis although players are yet to be infected.

Prince Pamboe believes certain critical measures will have to be taken to certify that fans that attend games are also free of the virus.

However, he insists the current 2019/20 Ghana Premier League season should be cancelled to allow proper safety measures to be put in place before football can return.

"There are so many things we need to do before we can ensure our football will continue, football has to do with mass movement of a lot of people including fans, players and all other people who are connected to the game. These are the key ways by which the virus spread," he told Accra based Angel FM.

"So in a month or two even when the virus has gone down, what health authorities are still going to advise is that we do not have too many gatherings and travel unnecessarily because imagine there is a big match at the Accra Sports Stadium and one supporter habouring some Covid-19 within him shows up at the Stadium and this person infects many people, then we will have another pandemic again."

"He added: Even when things die down a lot of measures will have to be put in place as in giving the players a lot of psychological support, they will need enough time to do preseason and will need to be medically re-examined because if you are bringing people together you have to do mass testing for everybody including technical staff, supporters among others."

"When you look at all these things which I know the GFA does not have the capacity to be doing..."

READ ALSO: Gov't officially launches GH COVID-19 Tracker App

Ghana's Covid-19 case count stand at 641 with 83 persons fully recovered.