Ashworth on the importance of player communication

Dan Ashworth has reinforced the importance of keeping in contact with Albion’s players during the current coronavirus outbreak.

Alex Stedman

2020-04-11T06:00:00Z

Technical director Dan Ashworth.

The players have been given time off until the start of next month following last week’s announcement from the Premier League that there will be no football for the foreseeable future.

The club’s technical director also highlighted the need to look after the players during their time away and also discussed how both he and Graham Potter communicate at this moment in time.

He said, “I speak to Graham every other day and sometimes a few times in the day depending on what’s happening.

“Last Friday when the Premier League announced their latest update news me, Graham and [head of medical] Adam Brett got together and made a decision to give the players some time off.

“Graham and I have a really good relationship and speak all the time and we all have good contact with the players.

“We look after their training programmes; the medical department looks after that side of things and then we also have a care department too.

“I try to check in on the ones who may have been on their own. I’m fortunate to be with my family and it’s been quite nice because I’m hardly ever at home and usually at matches.

“It’s nice to have a meal with your family every night, but some aren’t as fortunate so I’ve targeted either new players or ones who live on their own to make sure they’re alright.”

Ashworth was also asked about how the club are planning for the months ahead, and in particular how things such as recruitment have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

“The nature of the situation that both ourselves and many other clubs are in is that our division next year hasn’t been decided.

“Normally we’d know more at this stage of the season and wouldn’t have that many matches left to play.

“In that instance we’d run two [recruitment] strategies – one for if we were in the Premier League next season, and one for if we were in the Championship.

“The third one we have now is planning for the current environment and how things would look if we were to play the rest of the season.

“So now we’re working to three scenarios rather than two. We have to be ready to act as soon as something happens, and other clubs in the League will be the same.”