Ex-Man Utd and Bayern star Owen Hargreaves says players will be ‘smashing into each other’ when Bundesliga returns
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OWEN HARGREAVES believes competitive football will return with a bang following the Covid-19 shutdown – just as soon as one player smashes into another.
A lack of match action for two months has led to some fearing when top-level leagues do return that games will be played at little more than testimonial pace.
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Now fans will discover just what the future has in store when the top two divisions in Germany resume their leagues this weekend.
And BT Sport’s Bundesliga pundit Hargreaves says though fitness will be a concern to start with, all those thoughts will disappear once the first crunching tackle is made.
Hargreaves said: “I don't think it will be that testimonial, but it will be slightly reserved, because the boys will be thinking 'I've been out for a long time, I don't want to pull a hamstring'.
“But once somebody smashes into you, then the competitive juices are going to flow and everybody is going to go full tilt.
“I don’t think the football is going to be the hard part, because the boys have been chasing a football around since they were five years old.
“I think it’s more about the intensity, and it’s going to be a big jump from whatever they were doing at home.
“Initially people will be a bit cautious and soft-tissue injuries, I think, will be the biggest issue.
“But the boys, as much as they won't be as physically sharp, their competitive instincts naturally if somebody tackles them or something happens in a game, their instincts are going to kick in then you're going to get it back to natural."
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The Bundesliga is the first of the big leagues to get back up and running and Hargreaves says the world – not just the Premier League – are watching on with fingers crossed.
He added: “At some point we’ll have to test people, see who has it, who doesn’t, get them into a more controlled environment and get back into some form of normality.
“It will be the same for schools here. Forget football, the whole world will be watching this weekend to see if this works because the NFL, the NBA, they are all watching to see how this goes.
“It’s not just a sporting context.”
BT Sport is the home of the German Bundesliga with coverage of every game. This weekend, watch every match live, from 2pm on Saturday. Watch on TV, the app or with the BT Sport Monthly pass .
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