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Wayne Rooney has hit out at football’s authorities over their “baffling” decision to only suspend leagues in England when Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta contracted coronavirus, and not when three Leicester City players were quarantined with symptoms.

The former England captain questioned why the FA, Premier League, and the government, were willing to treat players “like guinea pigs” despite the news on Thursday afternoon that a trio of City players were in self-isolation after showing mild signs of Covid-19.

Later on Thursday evening, the Premier League released a statement saying that the weekend’s games would be played as usual, in front of thousands of fans, but were forced to set up an emergency meeting an hour later when the Gunners confirmed their head coach was ill with the virus.

Rooney, now at Derby County, believes that if Leicester had a higher profile, like Arsenal, news of three of the players showing symptoms would have prompted the authorities into action.

“Why did we wait until Friday?” Rooney asked in his Sunday Times column. “Why did it take Mikel Arteta to get ill for the game in England to do the right thing? For players, staff and their families it has been a worrying week, one in which you felt a lack of leadership from the government and from the FA and Premier League.

“At Derby County, we sat at training on Thursday waiting for Boris Johnson to speak. People were anxious. We’d heard in the morning that three Leicester City players had shown symptoms of coronavirus.

“[The Prime Minister] said the schools are fine, let’s carry on, and what he said about sport was: ‘We’ll make a decision on it later.’

“You just thought: ‘He’s dodged it, he’s left the FA and Premier League to make the decision.’ When the FA and Premier League then didn’t make a decision either, it didn’t surprise me.

“It felt baffling that with three Leicester players having symptoms we were still planning to go ahead with games. Then on Thursday night it came out that Arteta had the virus and all of a sudden the Premier League announced an emergency meeting the next morning. What was the difference? Is it that Arteta was a bigger name?

“It felt typical of the way things are done in football. That Leicester aren’t a big enough team to cause any chaos, it’s fine, we carry on. Then as soon as one of the bigger clubs – Arsenal – are affected, we finally make a decision. It felt like we were trying to limp along, keep football going, instead of getting everyone for what’s going to come.

“After the emergency meeting, at last the right decision was made – until then it felt like footballers in England were being treated like guinea pigs.”

Football in England has been postponed until April 3, and Rooney said the governing bodies should be able to guarantee players’ and fans’ safety before allowing the game to restart, otherwise he would think about quitting the sport.

“I hope we learn from it because the next decision is just as big: when do we start playing again?” he said.

“For me, that can only happen once, for players, fans, and everyone else, it is absolutely safe. The powers have to get that one right. I know how I feel: if any of my family get infected through me because I’ve had to pay when it’s not safe, and they get seriously ill, I’d have to think hard about ever playing again. I would never forgive the authorities.”