JONNY HAYES has expressed his remorse after it was revealed that he was one of the eight Aberdeen players who went out in the city centre last Saturday.
First-team stars Jonny Hayes, Michael Devlin, Scott McKenna, Matty Kennedy, Sam Cosgrove, Dylan McGeouch, Craig Bryson and Bruce Anderson were all ordered into quarantine after two returned positive coronavirus tests following a visit to a bar.
Aberdeen was later placed in a fresh lockdown after an outbreak of Covid-19 cases linked to a number of bars emerged.
Following the incident Hayes, who moved back to Pittodrie from Celtic this summer, told of his regret to Aberdeen TV.
On letting down manager Derek McInnes, he said: “I’ve never played for a manager who has his players’ backs as much as the manager.
"The overriding emotion is we have let people down.
“You can tell that he feels let down, and that we have let him down as well as everyone else.
“We have to repair that trust between ourselves and the manager.
“It has also been tough on our team-mates so that is one of the reasons we wanted to come out too.
“People don’t know who has Covid and who hasn’t, so it’s been tough on them.
“Our team-mates have been supportive, they know a mistake’s been made.
“We wanted to support them by letting people know who it was so everyone wasn’t tarred with the same brush.
“It has put the spotlight on football and cast a shadow on the hard work people have been doing.
“We have to put our hands up and apologise to everyone involved.
“We made a mistake, and we want to put it out there that it isn’t a case of football players thinking we’re above the rules or the guidelines.
“We made a mistake and we are remorseful.”
Furious First Minister Nicola Sturgeon ordered the Reds’ trip to St Johnstone to be postponed as she accused the Dons players of ignoring protocols agreed with the football authorities before the return to action was given the green light.
The match has now been rearranged for August 20.
Hayes continued: “We basically thought because we were together every day we were part of one big household. That’s where we went wrong.
“At any given point there were seven households together. We didn’t know that was unacceptable.
“We went out for dinner and we went to a city-centre venue, but we shouldn’t have done it.
“It wasn’t the case we went out intentionally to do something wrong. It was a genuine mistake.
“There’s been some serious ramifications, not just for the St Johnstone game but the Scottish game as a whole. So we apologise to everyone.”
He added: “It was human error. Sometimes you take your mind off the ball and we did.
“If something positive comes out of it, it’s highlighting it so that the whole of Scottish football will see the guidelines are there for a reason.”
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