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VICTOR MOSES, OLA AINA BACK IN ACTION AS SERIE A GETS NOD TO RESUME

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Nigerian players in the Italian Serie A will soon be back in action along with the others as the Italian government announced that clubs canreturn to team training from next week Monday 18 May.

This is however conditional as the clubs will have to make adjustments to medical protocols.

Among the Nigerians in the Serie A are Victor Moses (Inter Milan), William Ekong-Troost (Udinese), Joel Obi (Chievo Verona) and Ola Aina (Torino) among others.

According to AFP reports, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) met the government’s technical scientific committee (CTS) last week to discuss details for a return to group training as the country emerges from a two-month coronavirus lockdown.

Italy’s sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora and health minister Roberto Speranza said in a joint statement on Monday that the CTS had largely accepted the FIGC protocol for a resumption of group sessions.

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“The opinion requested by the government from the Technical Scientific Committee confirms the line of prudence,” the ministers’ statement said. “The indications of the CTS, which are to be considered stringent and binding, will be sent to the Federation for the necessary adjustments of the protocol in order to allow for the safe resumption of team training starting from May 18.”

Football has been suspended in Italy since March 9 amid the pandemic, which has killed nearly 31,000 people in the country. The Italian government had allowed squads to return to individual training sessions in team facilities from May 4.

But there remain issues to be decided, such as the quarantine of players in case of positive tests for coronavirus.

Italian football bosses want to follow the example of Germany, which returns to action on May 16, and where only positive cases would be put into isolation.

But the CTS insists football must comply with the general rule of two weeks in isolation for those who have been in contact with positive cases.

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There are still 13 rounds of football to be played for some teams between mid-June, when the FIGC hopes to return to action, and August.

Since the return to training last week, Fiorentina and Sampdoria announced 10 positive tests. In addition, a Torino player  tested positive.

Spadafora later stressed the many tests that will need to be carried out on Serie A footballers would not be done “to the detriment of citizens”.

“If these changes are made, there may be collective training from May 18,” the sports minister told Italian television. “Whether the championship can resume, we will have to wait at least another week to see how the curve of contagion evolves and then be able to decide.”

One by one, players have returned to Italy, with Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo observing a two-week quarantine period and Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic returning to AC Milan on Monday evening.

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Italy on Monday reported fewer than 1,000 people in intensive care for Covid-19 for the first time since March 10 when the country went into confinement.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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