Coronavirus: Liverpool set up toilets, showers on training pitch as social distancing measure

Liverpool physiotherapist Jose Luis Parada has said the club has set up portable showers and toilets on their training ground pitches at Melwood as part of the “extreme measures” to aid social distancing and reduce the number of new coronavirus infections.

The Premier League leaders joined other clubs last week in the partial reopening of their training ground facilities for players to resume training in isolation, if they wished to do so. 

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“Since the start [of the lockdown], we had very hard training sessions thinking that we would return in two or three weeks’ time but since the lockdown has continued, we eased up the training at home,” Parada told Cadena Cope radio.

“Now that they’ve gone to the next phase, which is voluntary individual training sessions, there is one player training per pitch with extreme measures observed. Temporary toilets and showers have been set up on the pitches so that no one has to enter the buildings.”

The United Kingdom is still in lockdown but Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced it will relax restrictions this week, including an allowance for “unlimited” outdoor exercising in public places.

However, some players had found running in public to be challenging as they were spotted by fans that could break the social distancing rules to get an autograph or a photograph.

With a maximum of five players in at any one time, the sessions have been offered to players to maintain their fitness during the coronavirus lockdown. However, social distancing guidelines have been reinforced.

“We have four or five pitches so we have five players every 45 minutes,” Parada added. “They are given a timetable and arrive at different times. They have paths signalled on the floor like in airports.

“The player follows those signs once he leaves his car, he goes into the portable locker rooms, then he comes out and trains, does running drills, then when he is done, he follows a different path to eventually get to his car. 

“They never come across players that are coming in or players that are already there. There’s no need to enter the building. Once the player gets into his car, he already has in there his food and clothes to take to home. The clothes [that they were wearing for training] are later on sent to their home.”