Town general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill has reiterated the club’s support for the completion of the 2019/20 season but expects the restart to be put back further.
Football in the EFL and Premier League is currently suspended until the end of April with the squad scheduled to return to training on April 14th as things stand but O’Neill says that’s highly unlikely to happen.
"The players were due to return to training this week but that has been put back by the EFL until April 14th,” O’Neill told the club site.
"We are working to a timetable from there. We have to have a plan in place and at the moment, the instructions are to be ready to play from the start of May.
"Can players be ready to play at the end of the month fitness-wise? Yes, but that isn’t the question when you see what is going on in the world.
"How can we have players training and playing games when social distancing and a ban of more than two people being together is in place?
"It’s unrealistic to think we will be back for April 14th for those reasons and I expect that to change but we had a coaches’ meeting this morning and looked at the timetable and all we can do is work towards what we have been told by the EFL.
"There are meetings planned between all the main football bodies this week, the Premier League, EFL, PFA and there are some massive decisions ahead.
"As a club though, we certainly support the notion that everything should be done where possible to complete this season. If that doesn’t happen, the ramifications will go on and on.”
Over the weekend UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin admitted the season could be "lost” if it isn’t restarted by the end of June, while there were reports that the authorities want to finish the campaign behind closed doors.
Today, it’s reported that the Premier League is considering plans to play games in World Cup-style camps in the Midlands and London during June and July with the matches behind closed doors and players staying isolated in hotels as they might at an international competition.
A number of games would be played every day at the selected venues as the Premier League looks to fulfil its broadcasting contracts and avoid fines from the likes of Sky Sports and BT Sport.
The EFL may well look at a similar approach as it seeks to end its season.