ALAN CAMPBELL believes that clubs across the lower levels of Scottish football may lose players as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Crossgates Primrose manager has, in preparation for a likely restart of the East of Scotland League in October, re-signed 16 of his players from last season, while adding four others.

Last week, we reported that goalkeeper Craig Richardson; former Kelty Hearts midfielder Ciaren Chalmers; forward Lewis Payne; and another forward, the returning Mark McKenzie from Bo'ness United, had all joined up at Humbug Park.

While he was happy to further bolster his options with players he had targeted, Campbell said he remains on the lookout for reinforcements as circumstances may lead to others moving on.

"You might find it strange when I said I'm looking for another one or two, because I think we've got 20 signed," he explained.

"But, as a result of the virus, there's two or three boys in the squad already that's telling me they might have to work weekends, just because of the whole backlog of everything that's happened.

"That's the joys of working at our level. These guys might miss a few Saturdays and things like that, so I'm going to have to have a think about how we do that, whether we keep them on, or if we look at other options.

"I think other teams will be in the same boat. It was a bit unfortunate.

"As things start to get back to work, when you've got a squad of 18, 19 boys, I think it was pretty inevitable that one or two would change shifts or have to work more hours, and that's happened right away."

While it is hoped the new season will begin by early October, Campbell concedes that clubs like Primrose remain in the dark as to when they will be further step up preparations, such as by a return to training.

"We don't know what will happen with friendlies, whether we'll be allowed to play them, or whether it'll be closed doors," he added.

"I think the next 2-3 weeks will tell us where we are and hopefully we get some clear information an

"We've all had wee breaks before, maybe with bad weather. I remember one year, I think it was 2010, we had bad snow and I remember being off for 12 weeks but you always found somewhere to train, whether it was indoor or whatever, but this has been completely different.

"It's been really tough from a football point of view, but hopefully there's a bit of light at the end of the tunnel now."