THE Hamilton Kangaroos are set to resume training later this month, but already senior coach, Hamish Waldron, is putting plans in place, should the COVID outbreak remain or even worsen.

The Kangaroos got through their pre-Christmas sessions and are scheduled to return to the track on January 24, but Waldron said the club will need to be flexible going forward to ensure the safety of players was the highest priority.

“We were supposed to start on the 24th, I see the girls have delayed their return a few weeks, but at this stage we will start back as scheduled,” he said.

“We are just going to have to stay on top of it and if the players feel ill, they will need to stay away for as long as they need to.

“But we have got to get back into it.”

With more than 400 positive cases since January 3 in the region, the club has players who have got the virus, but others who have also had to isolate as close contacts.

The first-year Kangaroos coach said if it continued to worsen, then the pre-season sessions would take on a different look for a while.

“If it gets worse, we will probably just break up into smaller groups,” Waldron said.

“One might be at the gardens, one might be at the lake and one at the oval then we will just rotate them so everyone can get a chance to touch the footies.

“There would be a good couple of handfuls, I would say we have had around 10 from what I’ve heard that have been impacted so far.”

“They say every person who has it is different, so it will effect some and not others.

“We will try and ease them back into it, so if they are still feeling effects, we don’t want to flog them.”

The first few sessions back will be focused on fitness and will include another two-kilometre time trial to gauge players’ improvement, before footies become the focus ahead of practice matches and the season proper.

Waldron said the group had built a good base in December and was keen to get back into it again soon.

“It was all pretty solid before Christmas, there were a few hard sessions at the gardens and one at the oval,” he said.

“I think the biggest thing was that I was there doing it all with them.

“The list is really healthy, Cam Pither’s knee has been a bit sore, but he got more in than I was expecting, so that is positive.”

Waldron has started to talk to other clubs about practice matches, but with the current COVID situation, clubs are taking things slower.

The Hampden Football Netball League fixture is expected to be finalized by the end of the month.