Small, Crepinsek and Wilde added to COVID protocol list
Philadelphia Wings (Photo: NLL)
Three more National Lacrosse League players have been added to their team’s COVID-19 protocol list.
The Philadelphia Wings have moved Corey Small and Alex Crepinsek from the active roster to the list, while the Calgary Roughnecks have done the same with Mitch Wilde.
Last week, New York Riptide rookie, Jeff Teat, and Rochester Knighthawks’ transition player, Cory Highfield, were the first two players identified and placed in protocol this year.
Due to player confidentiality and privacy, the league does not disclose the specifics about why an individual is in COVID protocol. It is interesting to note, however, that the Riptide and Knighthawks did face one another in Week 1, while the Wings hosted the Riptide in Week 2. The Roughnecks, Knighthawks, and Wings are all in action this weekend.
Small, a free agent signing with the Wings this past off-season, sat third overall in the league for point production (16) after the NLL’s first two weeks. All five players are regular full-time contributors to their clubs.
New York Riptide vs. Rochester Knighthawks (Photo: SSM PHOTOGRAPHY 2021)
While the NLL’s protocol placements are quickly growing over just a few short weeks into the 2021/22 season, it pales in comparison to the National Hockey League, who has both significantly more rosters and games on their schedule.
With that said, the NHL’s COVID protocol list has seen a dramatic spike in recent days, in addition to over a dozen games postponed since December 13th. Right now, the NHL has placed nearly 90 players in protocol, many of those over the last several days.
Former NLL media person and current Seattle Times staff reporter, Marisa Ingemi, recently took a deeper dive into the NHL’s rapid spread of COVID and why “ice rinks are one of the worst environments for COVID to fester in sports, leading to higher percentages of viral loads lasting for a longer period of time.” While NHL and NLL game-play environments differ due to the colder conditions required for the NHL’s playing surface, they are similar in many other ways obviously.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study is quoted in The Seattle Times article, and reads, “The indoor space and close contact between players during a hockey game increase infection risk for players and create potential for a superspreader event, especially with ongoing community COVID-19 transmission.”
While they would never reach the NHL’s high count, many around the league The Lax Mag has talked to anticipate the NLL’s pool of players in protocol to grow greatly in the coming days and weeks.
After the league’s Week 3 concludes on Saturday night, their next game is only scheduled for December 30th due to their upcoming holiday break.
As mentioned in The Lax Mag’s earlier reports, the criteria for how long a player is required to remain on the COVID-19 protocol list is included in the “Management of Symptomatic (and/or COVID-19-Positive) Persons” section of the league’s COVID-19 policy & protocol document, and more specifically under the “Ending of Isolation” subsection. The league document, which can be found here, states:
Players or Club personnel whose test has been confirmed positive shall remain in isolation until all of the following conditions have been satisfied:
If at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared, and at least 24 hours have passed since last fever without the use of fever-reducing medications, and symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath) have improved (with the exception of continued loss of taste or smell so long as other symptoms have improved).
In addition, the Club Physician and any other treating physician providing care to the individual, must conclude that the individual no longer presents a risk of infection to others, and that it is medically appropriate (given individual and local circumstances) to terminate the requirement for isolation.
The termination of the isolation requirement is consistent with applicable local public health regulations or other requirements.