Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson insists that he has felt “very safe” since his club returned to training amid the COVID-19 pandemic this week.
Juergen Klopp’s side began socially distanced training in small groups on Wednesday, as the English Premier League steps up its bid to resume the season in June.
Although all players and staff members at top-flight clubs have been tested for the virus, Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante and Watford striker Troy Deeney opted against returning to work because of fears that they would not be safe.
However, England midfielder Henderson is sure that everything has been done to keep players as safe as possible at Liverpool’s Melwood training base.
“I feel very comfortable with all the measures that the Premier League and the club have put in place, along with my teammates,” Henderson told Sky Sports on Thursday. “The testing, the temperature control, the social distancing and disinfecting everything has been at a really high level since we’ve been back. They’re doing everything they can to make it as safe as possible.”
“We do feel comfortable and that’s why we’re here training,” Henderson added. “I feel very safe at the training ground, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
Last weekend, the Bundesliga returned to action and Henderson is hopeful that contact training and then a resumption of Premier League games is to follow.
“We want to follow the right protocol and follow the next steps,” Henderson said. “We want to start bigger group training and then hopefully start playing games again, sooner rather than later — whenever it’s safe to do so.”
Henderson said he understood the decision of players at other clubs who have stayed away.
“I fully respect their opinion. Everyone is in a different situation at home and, ultimately, if you don’t feel comfortable, you shouldn’t feel forced or pressured to come into work,” he said. “I fully respect the opinion of any players who don’t feel comfortable yet. If any of my teammates felt like that, I would respect and support them.”
With Liverpool 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League before the March shutdown, Henderson has been motivated to keep as fit as possible during the lockdown.
“My mindset hasn’t changed from where we left off. I always felt the season needed finishing whenever it was safe to do so,” he said. “I’ve stayed as fit as I can so that I’m ready when times come to perform at the highest level and finish the season off — that’s been our motivation.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with