Premier League clubs could receive approval to resume contact training as early as this week before restarting the season in mid-June.
Teams returned to training in small groups from Tuesday as the Premier League, which has been suspended since March, looks to get back underway amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But there could be further progress this week as the United Kingdom culture secretary Oliver Dowden said contact training was close to being approved.
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"I hope, subject to the sign-off by Public Health England and others, we will then later this week, very shortly, get the guidance about how we can have training in a contact environment.