PL club official: “I really don’t think they should be paid. We are not sure what the situation is under their contracts at the moment.”

A senior official at a Premier League club says players should not receive their wages if they refuse to return to training.

The 20 clubs are set to agree at their shareholders’ meeting on Monday that players can start training in small groups in strictly-controlled conditions.

But one club official told Sky Sports News if players are concerned and do not want to train, then clubs should not pay their wages.

“I really don’t think they should be paid,” the club official said. “We are not sure what the situation is under their contracts at the moment.

“If you asked people in the street would you train and play football against people being tested twice a week, would you do it for £60,000 a week, they’d all say yes. It makes me very cross.”

Some players may have health issues or have people at risk living with them, while official data has shown that BAME groups are more vulnerable to Covid-19 than others.

As for how Monday’s meeting may pan out, one Premier League club owner says the vote could be unanimous in favour of returning to phase one training.

He says he expects “most, if not all” of his players to return this week, although he estimated that up to 50 per cent have concerns about moving onto full contact training and playing games again from the middle of next month.

“I would hope that we can start small group training this week,” the club owner said. “The plan is then to move onto full contact training after a week.

“I’m expecting most, if not all our players back this week, but a lot of them are worried about playing games and contact training. I’d say it’s maybe as high as 40 or 50 per cent of them.

“All our players were tested this weekend with a view to training on Tuesday after we get the results late on Monday.”