Neil Lennon believes Celtic are well equipped should Scotland see a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
The manager has watched the club prepare for all outcomes with their rigorous testing and implementing of social distancing rules around the training ground and Parkhead. And he believes his players and staff are as safe as they can be.
A second spike would, of course, be out of his - and anyone else's - control but Lennon understands it is a genuine possibility. Though he is content in the knowledge that Celtic have done, and continue to do, everything in their power to ensure they are covered for every eventuality.
"There's been a mountain of work been put into this by the club and the people in the background," Lennon said. "In terms of protocols at the stadium and training ground. We've been tested twice a week and we've tried to live in a little bio-bubble. When we're away we've stayed in the same groups.
“We've had 10 or 12 rounds of testing now and all the players and staff have come back negative. A second spike might be out of our control and we've seen some flare-ups around the world. But the environment we've been in and the way Scotland has handled the pandemic has been very good.
"There was no blueprint for how to deal with something like this. But the people in this country have done really well to get us to this stage, with football and society moving forward. If there's a second spike, we'll be ready for that and will have some sort of measure in place to try and deal with it the best we can."
Supporters could potentially be able to return to Celtic Park and other grounds in Scotland by September and Lennon insists that would be the best outcome. "It bodes well to hear that fans could be back in by September, that's a nice boost," he added.
"But we've also heard the Prime Minister cancel some of the test runs in sport. They're putting the safety of the public first. It's baby steps and we're not there yet – but we've made significant progress in sport here. Socially and culturally for the government here, they've made strong strides but we need to show more patience.
“We're at the front of trying to get supporters into the stadium. The club have worked miracles doing health and risk assessments at the stadium. If we can achieve it, we'll be all for it."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel