ONLY 57 per cent of club players are willing to return to training until a Covid-19 vaccine is discovered, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Club Players’ Association (CPA).
The poll – in which 3,008 players took part – also showed that 22 per cent of players are not prepared to return to action for their clubs, while a further 21 per cent remain undecided at this stage. Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) said they would train or play if there was temperature checking in place.
Furthermore, 61 per cent of respondents said they would be prepared to attend club games and 34 per cent said they would attend inter-county games and it also emerged that 27 per cent of club players live with a person over 70 years of age or a vulnerable individual.
GAA President John Horan has said that, depending on medical advice, the club game could resume in July before the inter-county game returns in but the CPA figures cast a new light on his predictions.
CPA chairman Micheál Briody said: “The survey results indicate that a significant number of club players believe that until games are safe, they do not want to play.
“It presents a challenge for the future of the GAA but one we feel that as a community of players and members we can face and surmount together.”
Meath native Briody paid tribute to the impressive amount of community work carried out by GAA clubs throughout Ireland during the Covid-19 lockdown. He said those efforts proved the importance of grassroots GAA and added that the GAA needed to be more “community-centric” in the future.
“There has been a phenomenal voluntary effort at club level to assist elderly and vulnerable people in the fight against Covid-19,” he said.
“The GAA as an Association has shown real leadership. It is further evidence of the importance of the grass roots GAA to the fabric of Irish society and further highlights the need for the games to be more community-centric going forward.”
