Jack Harrison reveals Covid-19 changes to Leeds United life at Thorp Arch as murderball continues

Although life at the facility has changed drastically, Jack Harrison says the work Marcelo Bielsa puts his players through has been able to carry on largely as normal thanks to the way in which they train.

Harrison and his team-mates’ day-to-day experience is a far cry from what they were used to before the pandemic and has changed again recently, with an extra round of Covid-19 testing introduced by the Premier League.

“It’s been very different in terms of how we run things throughout the facility,” said the winger, on the Qué Golazo Podcast. “Everyone has split up into different changing rooms now - there are only four or five people in each changing room. We get tested twice a week. There’s a lot of different rules and regulations about how far you can be away from each other and there’s certain exercises you have to do more than two metres away.”

Being unable to congregate en masse will have come as a blow for players accustomed to the atmosphere and group dynamic but some things haven’t had to change. There’s been a lot of different changes throughout the training ground but I think our style of training kind of fits around the protocols and regulations,” said Harrison.

“It hasn’t really affected our training that much because we always train in small groups anyway.

“We’ve been able to continue work as normal and play the games as normal too.”

Murderball continues apace and the new normal has done nothing to diminish Bielsa’s appetite for detail.

“A lot of the sessions we do are very specific,” said Harrison.

“Our passing patterns that we do, they have to be done in a certain way.

“There’s certain movements we have to do and the rotation of the ball can’t go sideways, it has to go forward. The amount of detail Marcelo goes into is incredible. I think it’s one of the reasons why a lot of these managers all admire his work and methodology.”

The one regret for all of the Leeds players when it comes to their job is that it now takes place behind closed doors all week round, with fans locked out of stadiums.

It’s 10 months since the Whites played in front of their fans and Harrison is keen to experience some of the best stadia in the country all over again next season with added company.

“It’s a little strange without the fans,” he said.

“I think it would’ve been great coming into the Premier League with all the fans.

“We’ve played at these amazing stadiums - Tottenham’s was unbelievable, Old Trafford, Anfield. It would’ve been great to play there with the fans but, hopefully, we can do that next year.”