When will Whites play next? Training plans and promotion into 22-team Premier League - Leeds United Talking Points

When will Leeds play again?

The Coronavirus outbreak currently has all professional football in England suspended until at least Friday, April 3 with the 'at least' part needing extra emphasis.

Nobody really knows what is going to happen with the COVID-19 virus but Professor Chris Whitty, England's Chief Medical Officer, said on Thursday that he expected the UK to reach the peak of its Coronavirus outbreak in about ten to 14 weeks.

Even the minimum end of that scale is the end of May - with 14 weeks well into late June - and all things considered it is very hard to see any football being played any time soon.

Training plans, key dates and management meeting

Leeds will meet as a senior management team on Monday to make decisions on how the rest of the business operates in the meantime with fans set to hear from chief executive Angus Kinnear following the meeting's conclusion.

But where possible Leeds will likely try to keep things ticking over as normally as possible with the Whites training on Monday and Tuesday this week after having Sunday off.

Wednesday - when the Whites would have been playing Fulham - will be another day off in addition to Friday but the incredibly high fitness levels have been a key factor of United's success under head coach Marcelo Bielsa and United will be extremely keen for those levels to be maintained.

More developments into the general picture look assured next week with UEFA meeting on Tuesday and the EFL meeting on Wednesday before a Premier League meeting the following day.

A 22-team Premier League?

There have been all sorts of suggestions as to how the current situation should be resolved and the initial aim surely has to be in finishing what has started.

There are, though, still nine games left which would obviously mean playing deep into the summer, at least, after any restart with Wayne Rooney saying in his Sunday Times column that players would be prepared to finish the season in September.

UEFA will meet on Tuesday to discuss various options including staging Euro 2020 in November and December after earlier suggestions the tournament could be scrapped or held next year.

But it's not difficult to envisage the rest of the season being curtailed and there have been suggestions the Premier League could end the season now and award the title to Liverpool but have no relegation and have the top two teams from the Championship promoted into a 22-team top flight next term.

The Premier League will meet on Thursday to discuss their next moves and while the teams in the Championship's play-offs will think otherwise, that sort of conclusion would suit Leeds just fine, even if ideally the full season is completed and promotion sealed through the regular 46 games on the pitch.

The other option in the event of the season being cut short would be to declare the campaign null and avoid but surely that would be seen as grossly unfair.

Then again, is there any solution with which everyone would be happy?

In the event of a 22-team Premier League, Leeds might already be up.