Former sports minister Richard Caborn has urged the Premier League to introduce digital health passports for players to help keep them safe when they return to football.
A number of stars are concerned about going back to training next week and start games again next month given the coronavirus pandemic is not yet under control.
Under Government guidelines, players will be subjected to daily temperature checks before entering training grounds and they must adhere to social distancing measures when they are there.
But many remain worried about catching the virus, especially those who share households with vulnerable people, including Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham, whose dad is asthmatic.
Respected ex-Labour MP Caborn therefore thinks a health passport – similar to the ‘health certificate’ suggested by the Government - would help ease players’ anxiety.
Caborn is championing an app, branded the V-Health Passport, which has been developed by Manchester-based cyber-security technology firm VST Enterprises (VSTE).
The digital passport requires users to be tested for Covid-19 and their results uploaded to an app, which can then be scanned to authenticate a person’s status as positive or negative. It also includes a countdown timer to highlight when a user needs another test.
VSTE have approached the Premier League about their solution and think they could work with Prenetics, the Hong-Kong based biotechnology company who have been chosen to oversee tests in the top flight.
Caborn, who served as sports minister from 2001 to 2007, said: ‘I believe that using this digital health passport - along with an approved Covid-19 testing kit - holds great potential in resuming football and all UK sports.
‘It will allow players and teams to resume training within safe parameters and getting football matches and fixtures resumed behind closed doors.’
Last month, Sportsmail revealed VSTE’s ambitious plans for their app to be used to get fans back into stadiums, but that would have required mass testing of the whole population.
Now, with sports only considering returning behind closed doors, developers of the app are focusing on trying to get sporting organisations on board so players and staff can stay safe.
Away from sport, VSTE have held talks with Government officials and inventor Louis-James Davis believes his technology is more secure than the NHS's coronavirus contact-tracing app, which has been trialled in the Isle of Wight.
Davis said: ‘Unlike the existing technology being proposed, V-Health Passport does not use bluetooth tracking, tracing or proximity technology to track your movements location and data.
‘V-Health Passport is ultra-secure with end-to-end encryption using closed loop technology so all data and personal details are secure at all times.’
VSTE’s technology also allows the results of antibody tests – which show whether people have been infected with coronavirus in the past – to be uploaded to their app.
Public Health England have approved an antibody test developed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche this week.
A Government spokesperson admitted: ‘We have talked about, in the future, the potential for some kind of health certificate related to whether or not you have antibodies.’
However, the World Health Organisation has advised against using ‘immunity passports’ to ease lockdowns because it is not yet known if having antibodies means you are immune from the virus.