Arsenal loanee Dani Ceballos has appeared to confirm a June 20 restart date for the Premier League.
The 2019-20 top-flight season has been suspended since March 13, with June 12 initially the date touted for a resumption.
Following a unanimous vote at a shareholders’ meeting on Monday, Premier League clubs have returned to socially distanced group training this week as part of phase one of ‘Project Restart’.
Only six of 748 initial Covid-19 tests carried out on players and staff across 19 clubs on Sunday and Monday came back positive, including Watford defender Adrian Mariappa, Burnley assistant manager Ian Woan and two other unidentified members of staff at Watford.
The Government are hopeful that approval for the return of contact training in elite sports can be secured later this week.
The German Bundesliga resumed last weekend, while in Spain the aim is to restart the LaLiga season on June 12.
Speaking to RTVE in his native Spain, Arsenal loanee Ceballos seemed to confirm that the Premier League would follow suit one week later.
“We had the test 48 hours ago and all the team came back negative,” he said.
“We are going to start a week later with respect to what is being talked about in Spain, which is June 12. We are going to start the league on the 20th.”
After a promising start to his spell at Arsenal, Ceballos has largely struggled for form and fitness this season, with the midfielder revealing that his future lies with parent club Real Madrid.
“Dani Ceballos’ best is yet to come, [when I] settle into the team, feel important, feel like a leader, which is what I really like,” he added.
“I’m a Madrid player and any player in the world would like to play for Real Madrid. I have a contract with them for three more years and I think it’s the ideal team for me to be successful.”
