Celtic have splashed out £70,000 on two testing machines to ensure that their players can meet Government criteria to start pre-season training on June 11.
On Friday the Scottish Government gave top flight clubs the green light to start training again but a host of conditions are attached.
Players will be regularly screened before being allowed to take part in training but after a fortnight of testing in England no positive cases were reported by EPL clubs from the latest round of testing.
Carrying out the tests will run up weekly bills but in anticipation of that Celtic have splashed out on the hardware to ensure that their squad can get down to training as quickly as possible.
The Daily Record reports:
Champions Celtic and Ross County have already forked out for testing machines. The Parkhead club have paid £70,000 for two as they look to get players training from June 11.
Staggies chairman Roy MacGregor says he’s ready to share his device without profit with sports clubs in the Highlands but he accepts that if certain clubs can’t afford it they will need help from the SFA or SPFL.
He told us: “We had to buy a testing machine because of our location. We could share it with the likes of Elgin City or other part-time clubs who are serious about testing their players.
“The result takes 20 minutes and you can do 15 tests in an hour. The cost for us, for 30 players and staff at £50 per head, two or three times a week, could be around £3000 per week on top of the cost of the machine.
“We felt we had to do it. But there’s no doubt that testing is the biggest challenge now for clubs.”
The Joint Response Group for Scottish football has been given provisional permission to start the new season on August 1 but that is dependent on general medical conditions as well as vigorous testing procedures being in place.
