Newcastle United's Valentino Lazaro hits out at 'unfair' criticism amid Premier League coronavirus lockdown

In an interview with the Austrian press, the Inter Milan loanee claims pressure from the UK government was far from helpful and attempted to paint top flight players as ‘unwilling’ to donate to the cause.

Government health secretary, Matt Hancock, publicly called out Premier League footballers claiming they should “play their part” by reducing their salaries.

This was not something that went down well in the professional game, with players, led by Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson, coming up with the #PlayersTogether initiative behind-the-scenes.

And Lazaro thinks players were hung out to dry by politicians, at a time where everyone should be coming together.

Speaking to Sport.oe24.at, he said: “This was unfairly thrown on the heads of professional footballers. It came across as if the rich footballers were too good to donate anything. But it is not so. It was about other things. I think that a good solution has now been found in the end. I can assure you that at no time has a player refused to donate anything.”

Football in the top flight has been suspended indefinitely – and Lazaro admits he is not sure if he will get the opportunity to pull on the black and white stripes again.

“In England it looks like the climax of the Corona crisis is not yet reached. The trend is that everything is getting worse. But I always think positive and maybe we can still finish the championship,” said the on-loan winger.

“The first team training is planned for next week. But I guess it will be postponed again. Honestly, nobody knows how it will go on.”

He continued: “I am doing very well according to the circumstances. I can't complain, I'm healthy. I am at home with my mate, we are well looked after, get the food delivered by the club. We are actually very busy, we are not bored until now - also thanks to the Playstation.”