Watford's Troy Deeney refuses to train, says can't risk infection around 5-month-old baby

Earlier this week, British government officials and Premier League authorities gave the green light for clubs to resume training at their respective facilities from Tuesday, May 19 onwards. The Premier League Project Restart is reportedly planned to culminate sometime in June with a majority of English top-flight clubs agreeing to resume training this week. However, one player who is unwilling to show up for training with his club is Watford captain, Troy Deeney. Deeney, who was blessed with a five-month-old baby recently, revealed that he will not be coming back for training in order to protect his family from coronavirus.

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Watford's Troy Deeney refuses to train, says can't risk infection around five-month-old baby at home

While appearing on Eddie Hearn and Tony Bellew's Talk The Talk podcast, Deeney said, "We're due back in this week. I've said I'm not going in. It's nothing to do with financial gain. When I go into full detail about my personal situation, everyone here will go 'no problem'. My son is five months and he's had breathing difficulties. I don't want to come home and put him in more danger. You've got to drive in in your own kit, you can't have showers, then drive back in the same dirty kit you've got. If I'm putting my clothes in with my son's or my missus' it's more likely to be in the house." 

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Along with Troy Deeney, West Ham United captain Mark Noble also voiced his disagreement with a potential Premier League return. During the interview, Troy Deeney further added, "Within the meeting, I asked very simple questions. For Black, Asian and mixed ethnicities they are four times more likely to get the illness and we're twice as likely to have long-lasting illnesses. Is there any additional screening? Heart stuff to see if people have got problems? No. Okay, well I feel like that should be addressed. If going forward, in phases two and three, which are going into smaller groups of three to six people, is there a clear layout if we hit certain targets then we will transition into 11 v 11? No, it's six days of this, seven days of that, then a week until you're playing.”

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