Shaymen hoping to have two more friendlies before start of the season, says Wild

The game at Fylde was called off after a member of the Halifax squad tested positive for Covid-19.

But The Shaymen are hoping to have two training games, played behind-closed-doors, before the start of the season against Maidenhead on August 21.

"It's not ideal, it's not what we needed, but it is what it is, there's nothing I can do about it, and we just have to move on to next week," Wild said.

"Hopefully we're announcing early next week two more games that we've already organised, and we move onto those next week, which we're pleased about."

Explaining the cancellation of the Fylde game, Wild said: "One of the players has tested positive for Covid, and we want to make sure that doesn't go through the group, make sure there's no others, and we have to be respectful to Fylde as well, who start their season next weekend.

"All in all, we just didn't see a way where we could play the game, and know for certain that nobody else had it."

Games went ahead in the recent European Championships despite players testing positive for Covid, but Wild says there was no alternative but to call the match off.

"They had time to do a round of testing before they played, we've only found out this morning there's a positive test, so there's just no way round it," he said.

"All the squad's been instructed to go for a PCR test today, including the staff, so they're all doing that as we speak.

"And we'll await the results, hopefully tomorrow morning, and we can put a plan in place for next week."

On whether there had been any progress with new signings, Wild said: "We were hoping today's game was going to rubber-stamp three or four of the trialists, we can't do that now.

"Chris and I will sit down over the weekend and discuss where we are with the trailists and take it from there.

"So we'll see what we discuss and what we agree with the chairman."