The GAA have plans to roll out rapid Covid-19 testing for players ahead of the resumption of inter-county fixtures next month.

The Association previously warned that teams who have been hit by outbreaks of the virus could face expulsion from the championship. But they are innovatively looking at how they can help prevent such events from occuring "to ensure both the health of the players and the games can go ahead."

“We’re currently examining what I would call a very limited rapid testing approach which will be only used in the three or four days leading up to a game if there was a positive test in a squad. Now it would be hugely different to what is in professional sports but it might be something that helps us to ensure both the health of the players and the games can go ahead," The GAA’s Director of Player, Club, and Games Administration Feargal McGill said when speaking to the media in a conference call today.

“It’s currently at tender stage so I can’t really comment much more but I would emphasise again it would be a very limited approach. I’d also emphasise to be fair our current control measures and just how well they’ve worked at club level.

"There’s only a really tiny proportion of the thousands of games that have been scheduled had to be postponed for Covid reasons and actually in reality even that handful, they could probably have gone ahead. It’s just that the fixture calendar allowed them to be postponed. We haven’t really had a situation where there’s been more than one or two players."

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