Philadelphia Union Return To Individual Workouts

CHESTER, PA (May 18, 2020)– Philadelphia Union today announced the team has been approved to begin voluntary individual workouts on an outdoor training field at the 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, DE on Monday, May 18. This week the club will hold sessions Monday through Friday, with each day consisting of multiple separate sessions. In keeping with health and safety requirements, a maximum of four players will participate in each session spread out across one outdoor field.

Health and safety protocol set by Major League Soccer prohibits media access to the complex including parking lots and training grounds.

The individual player workout protocol prohibits access to club facilities including but not limited to locker rooms, team gyms and team training rooms. Team gyms and training rooms may still only be accessed by players receiving post-operative and rehabilitation treatment, as directed by the club’s Chief Medical Officer.

The Union worked with both local health officials and the league to ensure the safety of all players and staff on-site and shared their plan with both parties that outlined how the team will implement health and safety protocols, including:

• Restricting training facility access to essential staff only, with specific staff listed in the plan.
• Sanitization and disinfection plans for all training equipment and spaces, including disinfection of any equipment used by players (balls, cones, goals) between every session.
• Completion of a Standard Screening Assessment survey by each player prior to every arrival at the training site, and temperature checks upon arrival at the facility.
• Staggered player and staff arrivals and departures, with designated parking spaces to maintain maximum distance between vehicles.
• Player use of personal protective equipment from the parking lot to the field, and again on return to the parking lot.
• Staff use of the appropriate personal protective equipment throughout training, while also maintaining a minimum distance of 10 feet from players at all times.
• Hand washing and disinfectant stations for required use before and after individual workouts.
• Clubs will have the use of the outdoor fields at their training facility, divided into a maximum of four quadrants per field. Each quadrant is 35X55 with five yards between each grid. A maximum of one player per quadrant may participate per training session with no equipment sharing or playing (passing, shooting) between players.
• An Emergency Action Plan for all COVID-19 related issues.

The league-wide moratorium on small group and full team training remains in place through and including Monday, June 1.