Oxford United take on Peterborough United in a pre-season friendly with a difference today.
The U’s will take on the Posh in two matches played side by side on the pitches at the Oxford Sports Park with the aim of giving as many senior players a run out as possible.
Three positive covid tests last week meant 12 players having to self-isolate for ten days due to close contact rules. Although players have been able to train on their own they have not been able to train as a group but most will be able to play some part in the two games today as Karl Robinson explains.
“The initial isolation period is over but it’s not quite as clear as ‘everyone back and start again’. We need to be very careful and not take any risks now with the first game only ten days away, plus you can’t throw everyone straight into 90 minutes. That’s why we have added another friendly next Tuesday: it means we will play the same number of games we always planned.
“One or two had mild symptoms and there are individual return to play protocols we have to adhere to for them, one or two have aches and bruises from games last week, nothing too serious but we’ll need to be careful with those and we also want to take a look at some of the young players who have certainly made the most of their chance against Hayes & Yeading and Banbury last week.
“We are looking forward to the games today. We have had some excellent matches against Peterborough and we know they will be played in the right way. We will mix and match, get what we need out of both games and it will be interesting to manage two games at the same time: it’s good to keep everyone thinking and having to adjust what we would usually do for a friendly. We have had to adapt to so many things over the last 18 months so let’s see how we deal with this today.”
We will have coverage from both games on twitter and a match report and gallery right here on the final whistle. Read one, get one free…