OPINION: It's one day at a time for sport in this Covid-19 era - Colm Kinsella

IT can be easy to lose sight of the fact in recent week that we, as sports fans, really are in bonus territory at present.

Three months ago it seemed highly unlikely that any competitive sport would be played in Ireland this year, certainly non-professional sport.

There is no doubting the huge lift that being able to train and play sport has given the nation’s children, youth and adults over the past two months.

Playing sport is good for people both physically and mentally.

Also medical experts agree that people’s risk of contracting Covid-19 outdoors is significantly less than the chance of catching the virus in an indoor setting.

In recent weeks we have seen several sports clubs reveal that they had have a confirmed case or a suspected case of coronavirus within their playing group.

But there is nothing to suggest that the players contracted the virus playing sport. This point was made strongly by leading GAA coach Paul Kinnerk in a Tweet this week.

Kinnerk tweeted: “The spread of Covid-19 through playing sport in outdoor spaces has not been supported in any setting to date. Follow protocol as regards sanitisation, prohibiting dressing room usage etc; young people can continue to play safely.”

All the evidence suggests that sports clubs are taking their responsibilities in relation to Covid-19 seriously and adhering to the guidelines.

As the weather starts to turn in the coming weeks heading into autumn, there will be an even greater onus on those playing sport to adhere to the guidelines that have been put in place for the safe playing of sport.

Colds and flu’s are commonplace in the autumn and the very real threat posed by Covid-19 in society on top of that will complicate things.

Players who display symptoms must simple stay away from sporting activities. It will be interesting to see if it is feasible to continue playing non-professional sport through the autumn and winter months if the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus continues to rise.

Public health is number one and unfortunately if sport has to cease again in the coming weeks and months as a result of the threat posed by the coronavirus then so be it.

Right now the start of the Munster senior championships in both hurling and football seem like a long way off.

So much water has to flow under the bridge between now and then. In the meantime, the hope is that the various county championships in GAA can be completed in the weeks and months ahead.

As a sports reporter, the absence of any kind of live sports fixtures for more than four months was strange. 

Covering games for some 20 years meant that live sport was an integral part of life as well as earning a livelihood from it.

It really wasn’t until I attended my first game back – the meeting of Mungret St Paul’s and Kildimo-Pallaskenry in the Limerick Premier Intermeidate Hurling Championship at Clarina on July 24 – that I in fact realised how much I missed it. 

Since then I have been fortunate to attend up to two games each weekend for work purposes. 

I appreciate the privilege it is to be able to do so at a time when so many people in sports clubs didn't have that opportunity when the limit was set at a maximum of 200 attending outdoor sporting fixtures to include playing squads, backroom teams, stewards and match officials.

Obviously the announcement this week that all sporting fixtures must take place behind-closed-doors has changed the landscape significantly.