Hockey players can go home but will have to serve quarantine period


Hockey players can go home but will have to serve quarantine period

hockey indialogo

Hockey India.

According to the Hockey India SOP, for national teams located at SAI South Center in Bengaluru, hockey players can go back to their native place but must serve a mandatory quarantine period of 14 days before camp.

ADVERTISEMENT

With an aim to provide the safety of the players for Olympics bound players, India Hockey India has devised a detailed Standard Operating Procedure in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guidelines are not laid down for senior teams only but for the Junior National sides too.

The documents said that “to establish and maintain a safe training environment for the Indian hockey teams allowing them to prepare to the best of their ability for the Olympic Games in 2021 for senior teams and junior World Cup in 2021. This SOP is also recommended to keep the SAI campus free of the coronavirus and maintain the health and safety of the players while they are outside the campus”.

ADVERTISEMENT

The main aim of the SOP is to keep the environment free from the coronavirus and keep safe the players while playing outside the campus.

It has been decided by the Government of India that The Hockey India, players and support staff can be released from the campus but only follow the rules of the SOP.

“Each player/staff member will be given the option of leaving the SAI NSSC campus and returning to their home. Government of India, SAI and Hockey India will determine the duration of this leave-in consultation with their respective chief coaches but each player or staff member who returns to the SAI centre will be placed into strict quarantine for 2 weeks,” it added.

ADVERTISEMENT

The SOP mentioned that while traveling players and support staff will have to wear masks and carry hand sanitizers for their safety purpose and told every individual to avoid visitors while at home and work out in isolation. The SOP further directed all players to avoid direct physical contact like fist bumps and high five’s during training.

“No contacts with friends, only contact is with direct family. No visitors to come at home. No leaving the home and limited only to necessarily requirements,” it stated.

Since March 25 hockey players locked in their rooms in Bengaluru at the SAI center and they also urged to sports minister Kiren Rijiju to restart their training during online interaction.

ADVERTISEMENT

Most important thing in a documents is that all the players and the support staff have to follow the social distancing and the safety guidelines.

“Players have their own water bottle, fill it themselves and no one else will touch it. Players bring a towel for private use to wipe face during or after training, Only players and staff are at training ground during practice”, it stated.