McCann ‘praying’ City stay safe in face of Covid variant
Grant McCann. Picture credit: Hull City
Hull City boss Grant McCann says he is “hoping and praying” his players and their families are not struck down by the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 that is sweeping the country.
The Tigers head to Nottingham Forest on Saturday for the first of four games in 14 days over a busy festive period, with all clubs at risk of postponements because of the virus.
Aside from concerns about their personal health, players face a “17-day protocol” to get back to football if ruled out by Covid, McCann told a press conference today.
He said: “Things can happen so quickly, as we’ve seen already over the last two or three days with games being called off and players going down with this new variant of Covid.
“And like I’ve said to you before, it’s not as straight forward as missing one or two games, it’s like a 17-day protocol that the players have to follow to get back into playing. So it’s the ten days of isolation plus the seven days of ‘return to play’ protocol, so it’s difficult, you know.
“And particularly if you lose four, five, six of them. So we’ve got to make sure we lock things down a little bit better round the training ground, which we’ve done.”
McCann said the club could not make any contingency plans, and said: “It’s very hard to control, isn’t it? We’ve just got to hope and pray people stay safe and their families stay safe.”
He added: “We are just hoping and praying we get lucky with it. Obviously it’s hard to predict, but we’ll see. We’ve just got to take it day by day.”
The Tigers, who are in 19th place in the Sky Bet Championship, are on a six-game unbeaten run but face a stern test in Forest, who are eighth.
The City boss said Saturday’s opponents have been on “an incredible run” that has taken them from near the foot of the table to close to the play-off places since manager Steve Cooper came in.
He added: “It’s going to be a tough game, for sure. The City Ground is a difficult place to go anyway, whether they are in form or out of form. It’s always packed to the rafters there. We’re bringing 1,600, 1,700 fans with us - it’s going to be a great day, hopefully we can send our fans home happy.”
City are playing with confidence and “a wee bit of swagger”, McCann said, “so something’s going to have to give in the game, but we will go there and give it our best shot and see if we can come away with the three points”.
City have no fresh injury worries, with Josh Emmanuel, Lewie Coyle, and Alfie Jones, still out of contention, but defender Brandon Fleming having done “very well” in his 70 minutes for the reserves against Peterborough on Monday night, McCann said.
The City boss said he would review current loan deals and January recruitment at a technical board meeting next week.