Warrington Wolves prop Chris Hill says his squad’s best wishes got to the Hull FC players that have tested positive for Covid-19, but it hasn’t lessened his desire to continue playing.
The England frontrower has full confidence in the Wolves’ safety protocols just days after eight players and staff at the Black and Whites contracted the virus.
Asked if it has made him think twice about playing again, Hill said: “Not so much – it’s just one of them where you just want to get on with things.
“What will be will be, and hopefully everybody in Hull and Salford is alright.
“Obviously our wishes go out to the boys at Hull and, if there’s anyone really struggling with it, that’s the last thing we want.
“Over so many weeks there’s not been one player or member of staff that’s been tested positive, but it only takes that one person to get it or not to show symptoms and pass it on.
“I know nobody’s tested positive at Salford so far and hopefully nobody’s caught it there.
“We can only concentrate on what we’re doing at Warrington.
“Nick Murphy, our physio, has had everything in place from day one and all credit goes to him.”
Hill provided an insight into what it’s like for Super League players to continue to train and play at present.
He explained: “It is different. We go in, get our temperature checked, there’s all social distancing rules to follow.
“We’ll do our normal weigh-in and stuff like that, and now we have a set-up in the training barn. There’s a one-way system, and our chairs and our facilities are apart.
“Our barn is now half a gym and we split in the gym, so it reduces the numbers so that we’re not all on top of each other.
“We’ll go and train. When we come in as a group, we’ll stay two metres apart, and with water bottles we can’t be sharing anything like that.
“It was a bit odd for the first two or three days but we just become accustomed to it.
“We’re there to play rugby to the best of our ability.
“We just learn and get on with it, and that’s what rugby lads do.”
Hill also paid tribute to Super League’s players for their commitment during the coronavirus lockdown. He believes the extended break and resulting rule changes could actually prove to be a watershed moment for the sport in the long run.
He added: “When Covid hit, I know for me personally it was getting up, going out running on my own, doing little bits of training.
“And I think you can see overall everyone’s had a great dig. I can definitely vouch for our lads and what they’ve done through Covid.
“We saw a lot of people running around the streets when we were on lockdown and had the hour out, and I was doing ups and downs alone on a field near me.
“And it’s hard work after five, six and seven weeks of doing it on your own.
“So there’s a lot of commitment with the lads, and I can vouch for our boys – they had a real dig.
“I think with these rule changes it’s probably sparked the game up a little bit, and we’ll see a lot more entertaining stuff.
“Hopefully a couple of years down the line we’ll look at this as a bit of a turning point within Rugby League.”
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