Watford captain Troy Deeney reveals shocking abuse received over Project Restart stance

Watford captain Troy Deeney has revealed he has faced heckling in the street and sickening online abuse of his family over his decision not to return to training.

Deeney has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Premier League's 'Project Restart' and he declined to begin to "phase one" socially-distanced training last week over safety concerns.

His five-year-old son suffers from breathing difficulties, while he previously said he was left unconvinced by the Premier League's response to the increased risk posed to BAME players after being briefed by the top-flight ahead of the start of no-contact training.

The Hornets striker revealed he has been confronted on the street over his decision, while online trolls have even targeted his wife and young son.

He told CNN's Darren Lewis: "In a time where it's all about mental health and everyone says: ‘Speak up, speak out, please speak' – Danny Rose spoke out, and I spoke out and we just get absolutely hammered and battered for it.

"It's not just us that gets it. My missus gets direct messages and you'll be walking down the street and people will be like: 'Oh, I'm at work, you go back to work.' And I’ll be like: ‘I didn’t make you go back to work.'

"I saw some comments in regards to my son, people saying: 'I hope your son gets corona[virus].’ That's the hard part for me."

And Deeney, who has previously spent time in prison for affray, called on social media companies to do more, saying: "Whilst I’m trying to be a better human being, anyone that knows my past knows it’s very hard for me to ignore things like that.

"Do I think it’s ok? Not at all. Do I think there’s a lot more that social media could do and should do? Yes. Will they? Probably not. I can keep banging the drum and hopefully one day somebody will listen."

On Wednesday, Premier League clubs unanimously agreed to begin "phase two" contact training by the end of this week, with tackling permitted but unnecessary contact limited.

Deeney has continued to train alone near his Warwickshire home but revealed that he was "potentially" going to go back to Watford next week, "even if it’s just to have a conversation".

He said: “I only said that I wasn’t going back for the first week. People took that as I’ll never go back."

Deeney has been encouraged by conversations with the government's deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam, who fielded questions from the Premier League BAME advisory group, including the Watford captain, on Friday.

“My concerns were purely for family reasons," Deeney said. "I have a five-month-old son who's got breathing difficulties. So, for me, I needed more questions answered, with a bit more authority and at the start, they couldn't really do that.

"Not for any reason or lack of want, just because they didn't have the information.

"I've been fortunate enough to speak to Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, who works with the government. He's been doing very, very good research and a lot of good will on his part to tell me, ultimately, that I'm going to be looked after, as best as they can.

"And ultimately there is going to be some form of risk for all of us going back to work."

Watford's Adrian Mariappa was among three of the club's staff to test positive in the first round of centralised Premier League testing last week.

The latest results on Wednesday revealed four positives across three clubs from 1,008 tests, taking the total number of positives to 12 from over 2,700 tests in the first three rounds.

Asked if he believes the integrity of the Premier League's return will be jeopardised by further positives, Deeney said: "I believe personally that when it when it comes to the integrity of this season anyway, it's all it's already gone.

"I feel sorry for Liverpool. And because no matter how it plays out, they deserve to win the league. They deserve to get the trophy… Even if we play all the games, it's still going to be the year about the pandemic.

"It's not going to be that year that Liverpool won the league being the best team."

Deeney also criticised Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who called for footballers to "do their bit" and take a pay cut in early April.

"Conversations were already in the pipeline… It just got escalated due to somebody deciding that they wanted to, you know, throw footballers under the bus," Deeney said.

"[It was] ‘Let’s go to the footballers, the crisis. We’re going to go into a recession right, let’s get the taxes higher and take it off to footballers.'

"You never see that Lewis Hamilton, you don’t see boxers, you never see the same amount of pressure put on these guys [as] is put on footballers."

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