JETS coach Arthur Papas admits he is concerned about how his COVID-ravaged squad will cope with what shapes as the busiest schedule in the club's history.
After the postponement of six consecutive games because of the coronavirus, Newcastle are hoping to resume on Sunday week, when they host Adelaide at McDonald Jones Stadium.
Adelaide's visit will be the first of Newcastle's 21 remaining games, with their regulation season set to culminate in a last-round clash with Macarthur FC on May 1.
That means they will be playing, on average, seven games a month in the race to make the finals, with about four days between each match.
Newcastle, Central Coast and Perth, who have all played only five games this season, face the most catch-up fixtures.
And while Papas has been intent on transforming his team into the "fittest team in the A-League", he is now in uncharted territory as the majority of his squad recover from an outbreak of COVID last week.
"My concern is always for the players, and making sure they're healthy and we're doing the right thing by them, and not bringing them into situations that could compromise their health," Papas said.
Papas said, speaking from personal experience during a stint as assistant coach at Yokohama F. Marinos, Newcastle's conditioning staff were going to walk a "fine line" managing the workloads and wellbeing of players over the next three months.
"I've experienced it, first of all, in Japan in 2020," he said.
"We didn't play for I think it was four months at the time, and then we basically fitted something like 45 games into four-and-a-half months.
"So there wasn't almost a day off in that whole period. I don't recall having a day off.
"It was turn around, refresh, go again. We're going to have a similar situation here. If the league is aiming to still finish at what was initially put in place, we'll have a similar situation.
"I'd say there will be 70 or 75 per cent of the weeks that will have an extra game in it for us.
"So that's a strain on the squad, but that's also going to create opportunity."
He said the congested schedule was "one of the challenges we're looking forward to and we'll take it as it comes".
Newcastle's conditioning staff are planning to modify their training regimen to cope with the frequency of games.
"As an athlete, that's something you need to adapt to, at the time," Papas said.
"You can't create a massive spike. It's not easy to manage a massive spike out of nowhere, because you train to play the competition you're in.
"You don't train to play another competition, which has a different structure.
"So that's the variable now that's going to exist, and we're working really hard to anticipate what that's going to be like and adapt training to suit ...
"It might hurt us early on, but we need to start preparing them [Newcastle's players] for what the reality is."
Papas said "a couple" of players had still not returned to training but "the majority are back in and around the mark over the next couple of days".
All Newcastle's players who have contracted COVID will be assessed by doctors and closely monitored after easing back into training.
"There's quite a bit of research going into athletes with COVID, as well," Papas said.
"Obviously they're asked to get back on the field and exert themselves at 100 per cent.
"We've got to be certain that we're putting them into a position where they can perform at their best, without risk."
Jets keeper Jack Duncan said before last week's COVID outbreak that the squad had trained as hard during their recent hiatus as they had in the pre-season.
"It does dent a bit of your momentum ... the guys had worked so hard," Papas said.
"I have to take my hat off to them, because it can't be easy to stay focused when these things [postponements] are consistently happening.
"But they've worked really hard, so it might have affected us a little bit, but I'm hopeful that we get them back and get to have a week training together, and it'll give us a good chance to get ready for what's coming up."
A rueful Papas conceded luck, as well as fitness, might now be a crucial factor in how the season unfolds
"It's a little bit about timing as well, when certain teams have been exposed and had time to recover and prepare," he said.
"That now becomes something that has a bearing on how the season plays out. It has to be taken into account.
"But we've never made excuses from the start, so we're just going to get on with it."
