OXFORD United’s players are due to come out of furlough tomorrow after the club decided to begin a coronavirus testing programme.

The squad and staff members will be checked at the training ground, with the results expected on Sunday.

Anyone who tests positive will have to isolate for seven days, but the intention is for everyone else to resume training on Monday.

It comes in advance of a decision on how the Sky Bet League One season will end, which is hopefully due finally next week.

But whatever the outcome of the vote, United know they will be in action, whether that is in the play-offs, or the increasingly unlikely scenario of playing all the remaining games.

Also read: Coronavirus testing at Oxford United - explained

Head coach Karl Robinson praised the club’s board for sanctioning the decision to return now.

He said: “We’ve always said we want to play and at the very earliest opportunity we would bring our players off furlough.

“We probably will be the first team (in League One) to do so and I think that’s an unbelievable statement by the board.”

United are waiting to see exactly what sort of sessions they will be able to stage initially.

Each phase, from individual running through to full-contact group work, has its own medical protocols which need to be planned out and the club’s staff are in the process of putting those together.

Robinson said: “We have the players’ wellbeing to take care of and their health. At no stage does anyone at the club want to put that in jeopardy.

“We’re just looking forward to it all being official and ready to go.

“Not all of our staff have been furloughed, so all those who have been employed have been working round the clock to make sure everything is organised.

“I’ve been so proud of everybody in the building and how they’ve conducted themselves.

“We’re looking forward to carrying out testing on Friday and seeing where that takes us.”

Monday will be 87 days since the club’s last session, which came hours before the campaign was suspended.

That is just four days shy of the entire close season and pre-season last summer, so it will take time to get players up to speed, although the early signs are good.

Robinson said: “Everyone seems to be fully fit. We won’t know 100 per cent until we start back in groups where we can have a bit more of an intensity to training.”