Schreiber back but Dawson and other players placed in protocol
Tom Schreiber (Photo: Ryan McCullough)
On the same day the Toronto Rock announced the addition of Tom Schreiber to the team’s active roster, the club has also confirmed that Dan Dawson has been moved to the league’s COVID-19 protocol list.
Schreiber had been placed in protocol on December 18th. He missed just a single game while sidelined – Toronto’s 12-9 win over the Philadelphia Wings.
December 7th update: A day after moving him from protocol, the Rock have placed Schreiber on the holdout list. Schreiber and his wife are expecting the birth of their first child.
Dawson was on the verge of becoming just the second player in National Lacrosse League history to play in 300 regular season games and was just two points shy of passing John Grant for second in all-time points too. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer currently sits at 299 games played and 1,445 points. John Tavares leads both the all-time games played (306) and points (1,749) lists.
During last week’s episode of the highly popular podcast, Back of the Bird, co-host, Rochester Knighthawks captain and Dawson’s brother, Paul Dawson, revealed he too had contracted COVID over the holidays.
Between the league’s holiday break and their postponement of Week 5 games, there will be a 19-day gap between the last NLL regular season game played on December 18th and the start of Week 6 this coming Friday. It’s believed that other players will have already contracted, isolated and tested negative between that nearly three-week stretch of inactivity. A roster move would not be required for those players.
The Rock play this Saturday in Buffalo against the Bandits (7:30pm ET) and then the following Saturday are scheduled to host a fan-less home date against the Halifax Thunderbirds (7pm ET).
As many have been expecting, today, tomorrow and potentially Saturday will be busy days for players placed in protocol coming out of the holiday break, with the general public and other pro sports leagues seeing a sharp spike in COVID cases. Click here for a full list of players placed in protocol, as well as those that have been released and readded to their team’s active roster or practice player list.
Due to player confidentiality and privacy, the league or its teams do not disclose the specifics about why an individual is in COVID-19 protocol.