Perth Glory hope to be permitted to charter a flight from Brisbane to Perth as they attempt to get their A-League Men players and staff out of Queensland hotel quarantine and home in time for Christmas.
The Glory’s 35-person travelling party have been isolating in hotel rooms in Brisbane since last Thursday after a player tested positive for COVID-19 and their entire group were considered close contacts.
The club and A-Leagues have been in discussions with the WA and Queensland health departments.
Glory chief executive Tony Pignata was hopeful a deal could be struck this week, allowing the group to complete the remainder of their 14-day quarantine period at home.
“It’s basically trying to get Queensland Health and WA Health to work together and be able to get them released from Queensland and get them home and they can do the quarantine at home, the remaining seven days,” Pignata told Perth’s TABradio.
“That’s what we’ve been working on last week and hopefully in the next day or so we’ll get some sort of answer and it’s a positive one.
“… That’s (a charter flight’s) what we’re proposing. We’ll do whatever it takes, charter a plane for them, and they don’t even have to go through any airports etc.
“It’s straight chartered bus to the tarmac, on the plane and home and then we work it from here.
“So we’ve provided all those answers to their questions on how we’d do it, how they would quarantine at home as well. So fingers crossed.”
Pignata said the player who tested positive was “a little bit upset” but health-wise, was “fine”.
The rest of the players, including high-profile recruit Daniel Sturridge, are all fully-vaccinated and have all tested negative so far in quarantine.
Pignata said mentally the players were “holding together” but were clearly frustrated by their situation.
“(Sturridge is) clearly frustrated, he came here to play football,” he said.
“About a month ago he did two weeks’ hotel quarantine, which he knew, he’d been training.
“He’s fit, was going to be ready to play last weekend and now he’s stuck in a hotel room. So he’s clearly frustrated, saying ‘this is not what I’ve signed up for’.”
Pignata was confident Sturridge wouldn’t look to go elsewhere, despite the frustrating situation.
The former Liverpool star has been limited to just nine minutes off the bench in Perth’s season opener as he works to build match fitness.
