Given Hereford's current Covid problems ahead of Sunday's match against Kidderminster, it is timely that National League general manager Mark Ives has been speaking about the number of 'fit' players needed by a club to ensure a fixture goes ahead.
'What we will do is get the evidence from the club,' said Ives. 'I don’t see any personal medical information, it’s verified between the league doctor and the club doctors. They liaise on a professional basis to verify the medical situation. It will then be relayed to me in terms of numbers that have Covid or are having to isolate because they’ve been in close contact and are unvaccinated or not double jabbed.
'I will then look at how many players the club has registered and it’s a basic mathematical exercise. How many do you have registered, how many COVID and I emphasise COVID, not injuries. And providing you have more than 14 players available including a goalkeeper then the game goes ahead. We will apply that consistently across the board...
'We primarily work on positive PCR results, not just lateral flow. Everything has to be evidenced and we want to protect the league from those clubs who might be accused of trying to manipulate the situation because of injuries.
'I think we’re actually doing really well,' continued Ives. 'Most of the clubs are helping us to fulfil the games and we’ve had far more games played than we have being postponed which is a good position. I personally don’t support a break at this moment in time but what is important is that we continue to review the situation. At this time, there is no evidence to support the need for a break.
'Having the vaccinations quite clearly supports the ability to keep being able to play. I’ve seen the evidence and games are being played because they have a high percentage of double vaccinated players. On the other side of the coin, games have had to be called off only because there aren’t enough double vaccinated players'.