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Watford captain Troy Deeney on Thursday blasted plans to restart the 2019/2020 Premier League season saying he will put his family's health before a return to playing football.
The 31-year-old alongside West Ham United captain Mark Nobles have been some of the most vocal critics of plans to restart the current campaign, which is proposed for 19 June.
Certain guidelines have been proposed for football to resume in a safe way, but Deeney remains unconvinced saying he would rather go broke than put his family's lives at risk.
"I am not even talking about football at the moment,” he told Simon Hosannah on Instagram. "I am talking about my family’s health and that is it.
"If I feel that I’m not looking after my family then I’m not going to do it. I am not going to put my family at risk.
"What are they going to do, take money off me? I’ve been broke before so it doesn’t bother me."
"We're doing all this testing to get footballers back to work and then the NHS, care workers and the people on the front line don’t have enough tests. How do you justify that?
"I feel like they want to get us back to work so they can take more tax off you. Premier League players pay nearly £4 billion in tax a year."
Studies have shown that black men and women are nearly twice as likely to die from coronavirus as white people in England and Wales.
And Deeney added: "Nothing more is in place for black people within any of the structures they are talking about.
"So when you ask that question and nobody can answer that question, why are you going to keep taking the risk?
"I am all for going back. But I am not for going back when it is not clear on how the steps are going to be made."
- Compiled by Baden Gillion
