Carlisle United's players have been told to stay away from the club and train at home until further notice.

The Blues have told Chris Beech's squad that normal training sessions as a group must now be halted.

It is the latest step in United's adjustment to the coronavirus crisis.

The move follows the Government's statement on Monday which advised against non-essential travel and social contact.

The Cumbrians say players have been given individual fitness programmes and can call upon fitness coach David Waldie and physio Neil Dalton for advice and support.

Nigel Clibbens, the club's chief executive, said today: “Chris Beech [United's head coach] had a training plan in mind, which would have seen his squad train on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week, with similar planned going forward throughout the postponement period.

“Clearly now that can’t be the case. With all of that in mind, at 6.30pm last night we took the decision to stand the players down, with immediate effect, and they will now be given personal fitness and training programmes to work on at home until further notice.

“Those training programmes have been issued and the players will be supported by David Waldie and medically through Neil Dalton and the doctor so that they can deal with any issues or concerns."

United say their club houses, in which players routinely stay during the week, have been vacated and players have returned to their families.

They will remain there until clubs are advised that squads can resume training as normal.

Games are currently suspended until April 3 but many in football believe matches will not resume until much later.

There is the possibility of domestic seasons continuing into the summer after UEFA's decision today to postpone Euro 2020 by a year.

Clibbens added: "From a staff point of view, the new advice hasn’t really changed anything. I’m pleased to say we were ahead of the game in terms of implementing work at home and social distancing policies for our staff, and last night’s announcements from the Prime Minister reinforced the thinking behind our decision to do that.

“Clearly what he said during his address to the nation is a game changer for the whole of the country in terms of what that new advice is with relation to non-essential travel and suppression, and is significantly different to what it was even a couple of days ago.

“It doesn’t change anything from what we were doing anyway with the back-office staff. We’ve spoken a number of times about how we’ve reduced hours in the shop, limited face-to-face meetings, and things like that, and we had also already reduced the numbers of staff on site to the minimum required to keep the club operational.

“This again shows how fast-moving this situation is and how we need to respond quickly to it, which we will continue to do.”