'I hope your son gets corona[virus].' Premier League footballer Troy Deeney says he has received public abuse for questioning the return of the Premier League during the Covid-19 pandemic
Watford captain Troy Deeney says he has been abused both in public and online for expressing concerns about the Premier League's attempts to restart the season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Deeney told CNN Sport that people online have been wishing ill on his five-month-old baby, who was born prematurely and has breathing difficulties, while people on the street have told him to go"back to work.""I saw some comments in regards to my son, people saying: 'I hope your son gets corona[virus],'" Deeney told CNN Sport."That's the hard part for me. If you respond to that, people then go: 'Ah, we've got him' and they keep doing it.
Behind the gradual return of global sport 03:19Messages of supportWith Watford siting precariously near the bottom of the Premier League, Deeney says much of the criticism he received was accusations of wanting the season to be canceled so his club could avoid relegation.However, once players from teams at the top of the league -- including Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero and Chelsea's N'Golo Kante -- began voicing their concerns, Deeney felt public opinion began to change.
Edwin van der Sar: 'Extremely harsh' if Liverpool don't win Premier League 04:04'Thrown under the bus'At the start of April, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock gave an answer during the daily coronavirus briefing in which he specifically called on Premier League players to do more during the crisis."I think everybody needs to play their part in this national effort and that means Premier League footballers too," said Hancock.
Premier League players"thrown under a PR bus" by owners, says Gary Lineker 06:04"We were already talking about giving a donation as players, those conversations were already in the pipeline and it just escalated due to somebody deciding that they wanted to throw footballers under the bus."How we feel sometimes is: 'There's a crisis, let's go to the footballers.' So it's the NHS, it could be anything.
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