Rose slams restart talk: I don't give a f--- about morale, lives are at risk
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Warning: Story contains coarse language
Danny Rose slammed talk of the Premier League restarting amid the coronavirus pandemic, insisting that matches shouldn't resume until the United Kingdom has the COVID-19 crisis well under control.
English football has been on hiatus since March 13, but discussions are ongoing over the league's "Project Restart" plan. The British government said Monday that professional sports can resume behind closed doors beginning June 1.
But Rose, who joined Newcastle United on loan from Tottenham during the January transfer window, is opposed to a return under the country's current conditions.
"The government's saying, 'We're bringing football back because it's going to boost the nation's morale,'" Rose said on Instagram Live.
"I don't give a fuck about the nation's morale. People's lives are at risk. Football shouldn't even be spoken about coming back until the numbers have dropped massively. It's bollocks."
To date, the U.K. has had over 224,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 32,140 related deaths.