Paul Barber believes it has been “a pretty good week” so far on the route back to Premier League action.

But Albion will tread carefully – and consult with players – every step of the rest of the way.

That will include a week ahead which could see training stepped up to the more full-on stage two.

Barber and many of his players spent part of last weekend watching Bundesliga action on television as the game returned in Germany.

The unanimous Premier League vote to approve stage one of training was passed on Monday.

And Albion report no problems – or Covid-19 positives – in the days since then.

Barber said: “It has been a pretty good week, from seeing the Bundesliga get under way at the weekend, watching the games.

“Even though the atmosphere was strange, looking at the TV it was strange, it was good to see football.

“Good quality players, good teams, great stadiums and, even though it was empty, it was good to see.

“Then getting the protocols, being agreed unanimously was important, we all worked hard on that and every club had their own individual concerns and points.

“We really worked hard behind the scenes to get as many of those points across to the Premier League and they did their best to accommodate as many of our points as they could.

“Then, of course, we got the players to support it, which was vitally important and training has got off very well.

“All those things are small steps towards what ultimately we want to achieve, which is to get back to playing.

“Getting back to playing is not just about concluding this season, it’s about making sure we’re in a position where we can support the wider game as well.

“If we can finish this season, get next season underway, then all of the solidarity payments that go through the Premier League to the lower levels will hopefully give those guys a boost as well and enable them to get through a very difficult period.”

It is a rebuilding process and so far, so reasonably encouraging.

Barber said: “I think it’s a really good foundation, with the players going back this week, the pitches looked amazing, the weather has been fantastic, they would have seen the level of detail that staff have gone into to make sure the protocol is followed.

“Disinfecting balls, disinfecting corner flags, grass, goalposts, all those things have been debated over the last few weeks and, when you see the environment that has been created and hopefully the players are feeling it’s as safe as it can be, recognising it’s a global pandemic and there are some risks there, then that’s a little bit of confidence today that they didn’t have a week ago.

“If the detail of the next two protocols comes through quickly and gives us time to assess that, then of course we can start to look to move forward.”

That detail was, as of yesterday still an unknown but it will be passed on to the players when possible. Their agreement is fundamental to Albion voting in favour.

Barber said: “We haven’t had those discussions.

“We have to break this down into pieces and deal with each piece in detail. The Premier League have done their best to show us what each piece looks like.

“We’re now looking towards the detail of the next two pieces, which is the return to larger groups of contact training and playing.

“I think the one thing we all must keep in our mind is that there are nearly 40,000 people that have died from this virus in the last two months in this country alone.

“When you have a backdrop like that, it would be incredibly insensitive and disrespectful not to take into account anyone’s fears – individually, collectively and certainly within a club.

“So for me it’s been really important to allow Glenn (Murray) – either personally or on behalf of the group – with Lewis (Dunk) as captain to express any concerns or fears they have.

“We have to address those fears, whether they are public or private.

“Suppressing them doesn’t make any sense because they’re still there.

“I’d rather they were actually out and on the table for us to consider and to try and allay as quickly rather than players harbouring those fears without telling us. We can then assemble the appropriate experts to provide that reassurance.”