, Lincoln City defender slams idea of football coming back

Lincoln City defender slams idea of football coming back

Lincoln City’s Ben Coker has told the Guardian that football should not come back as it would make players vulnerable to catching the Coronavirus.

The 30-year-old defender has already had a nightmare season. He signed for Lincoln last summer and only made one appearance in the cup before an injury prevented any more appearances at Sincil Bank. In an attempt to get back to match fitness, he went out on loan to Cambridge United but he has also struggled to get on the pitch there.

He is currently at home like the rest of us because of the lockdown which has stopped the EFL season. Talks are ongoing to try and restart the season but Coker is one of the people who is clear in his opposition to this. Not only is he worried for himself, he is one of the few players who is public about his diabetes and has a pregnant wife, but worried about players who would be put at risk if the season was to return.

Coker said: “From a fan’s point of view, everyone wants to watch football because there’s nothing else going on, but you have to look at us as human beings and say it’s not fair or right for us to be put in that situation where we’re going to be vulnerable to catching the virus,” Coker says.

“All it’s going to take is for someone to go down with it really badly and then, by the way, the legal side of it would be chaos. People do look at us sometimes as not being human beings but everyone has to be in the same boat.

“With my diabetes, I know how to deal with it day to day – if I do get ill, what I have to do with drink, food and monitoring it even that bit closer. In that sense, I would be OK with it [a return to playing]. But this is bigger than just me. My wife, Sarah, is nine months’ pregnant and me being in and around other people … well, that would be my main concern. I have to look at my family, so I think it’s too soon to come back.”

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