A team led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) has investigated the transmission of COVID-19 from sports equipment, finding that the risk is likely to be low, and probably lower than from player interaction before, during and after sporting activity. 

The project called upon the expertise of the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering’s Professor Andy Harland, with initial results published as an un peer reviewed preprint on the Metrix server.

Andy Harland, Professor of Sports Technology, Loughborough University, said:

“Sport plays such an important role in many people’s mental and physical wellbeing but has inevitably been interrupted during the Coronavirus pandemic. The opportunity to engage in research into risk of virus transmission via sports equipment was something we were pleased to support and hope the results can assist sports administrators and individuals to make informed decisions when returning to play.”

Find out more about the results of the research.