Scottish Premiership: How will clubs' training return work?

Football in Scotland has been suspended since mid-March, but another batch of Scottish Premiership clubs will return to training on Monday.

However, it is not training as players and staff normally know it, with social distancing and other rules in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

So how will it work? And who's returning when? Here's what we know.

• Clubs told of training restrictions

When is my club returning?

Celtic and Ross County resumed last Thursday, with most of their Premiership counterparts returning on Monday. St Johnstone might wait until 22 June and Livingston until 29 June.

The outliers are Hamilton, who are not planning to return until July.

How will it work?

With a raft of measures in place from temperature checks and questionnaires to disinfecting equipment and players washing their own kits, it has been a challenge for clubs to get things in place so quickly. So what will training look like?

"When they come back they'll be training in groups of four and there won't be any contact or further than that, not even any opposition," said Hibernian's lead sport scientist Colin Clancy. "No tackling, no pressing, nothing that is opposed in any way.

"It will be a good chance for them to work in a moderate fashion and be built up as the restrictions are eased. Bigger groups, more opposition, and finally contact and then some games. So that will probably happen over a period of six weeks."

Celtic manager Neil Lennon said his squad will train in groups of five, with two groups at Lennoxtown in the morning, two groups at lunchtime and two in the afternoon.

Players will not be allowed inside changing rooms, and each club has to appoint a Covid-19 officer from its own staff to enforce all of these rules. The Scottish FA has written to clubs to say breaches could mean the Scottish government withdraws its permission to train, which the governing body says will have a "catastrophic impact".

The Scottish FA issued rules on how training should be conducted

Will players and staff be tested?

While the Scottish government remains in phase one of easing lockdown restrictions, testing is not mandatory for clubs as long as they stick to the rules. It will be a requirement to conduct tests twice a week in phase two though, which is pencilled in to start on 18 June.

Lennon said last week Celtic were planning to test players and staff in the days before they return, while Ross County have imported a testing machine from South Korea.

"Within 20 minutes, the test will give us a positive or a negative," County chairman Roy MacGregor told BBC Scotland last week.

It is no secret that testing is going to cost clubs heavily. MacGregor says he paid £35,000 for the machine and the bill for weekly testing is £3,000. Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack estimated it would cost the club around £100,000 to test regularly until the end of the year.

Ultimately though, without tests football cannot resume and therefore revenue streams won't start flowing.

What about the players?

For the players it is back to work after three months off, much longer than they would normally have spent away from the pitch before the start of a new season. It is not as if they have been on holiday though.

Players not on furlough have been following club training plans while others will have been exercising in some form or other. Clancy says it will take some time to get squads back up to speed with the rigours of football, and injury prevention will be crucial.

"What they won't be used to is the football movements," he said. "The twists and turns and changes of direction. Initially it will be a re-introduction to that type of thing.

"Any player will tell you, sometimes working in smaller groups is harder. They'll be absolutely champing at the bit. But the coaches are good at periodising their week and making sure they're getting the right amount of work and the right amount of rest.

"My sense is players will just be relieved to be back and have football starting up again."

What about the other leagues?

Only Premiership clubs have been given permission to return to training as things stand, with others required to prove they can meet the rules first.

Clancy says it has been a "huge challenge" for Hibs to prepare to return and they have their own training ground with six pitches. Down the divisions and it becomes an almost impossible task, especially the cost and practicalities of testing is factored in.

"We would ask that supporters be under no illusion around the enormity of the task we face in finding a practical solution to allow us to adhere to these wholly necessary working stipulations," League Two club Brechin City said.

A return for many of Scottish football's 42 senior clubs is still some way off.