DRAGONS boss Dean Ryan won't compromise player safety by rushing back from quarantine, declaring it won't be until next week that they return to normal after their coronavirus outbreak.

The Rodney Parade region were closed down a fortnight ago after seven individuals tested positive for Covid-19.

The outbreak led to the Dragons' Guinness PRO14 fixtures against Connacht and Glasgow being postponed, then at the start of the week it was announced that the home encounter with Edinburgh will also be pushed back.

That was due to player safety with Ryan's squad unable to get themselves back into peak condition for the planned Monday night clash with the Scots despite returning to work on Wednesday.

With players being confined to houses and flats, the director of rugby won't rush them back into full-blooded training, let alone a game.

South Wales Argus:

"It's a huge relief to be back. We've got a staged return over the next few days to make sure we don't compromise anybody because quarantine is a lot different to lockdown," said Ryan.

"We were able to exercise in lockdown but this time we are working off the basis of 14 days of inactivity, which ultimately put paid to the Edinburgh game.

"Even when you go on holiday most players have a few beers and go for a run for a bit of an evening up process! Quarantine is nothing, and was right in the middle of a high-activity period for us.

"We are taking the next few days as a staged return with a view to getting back to normal next week.

"We would have loved to have played Edinburgh but it would have been unsafe. The advice that we are getting is that we need some staged days of increasing load and then we need to back off again.

"That made it impossible for us to prepare for Edinburgh, the timeline was too tight."

South Wales Argus:

The Dragons had two rounds of coronavirus testing while in quarantine, the first last Wednesday and the second on Monday. Both came through 100 per cent negative to allow staff and players to return to Ystrad Mynach.

The conditioning staff will be paying close attention to the players that previously tested positive to ensure the virus hasn't affected them too badly.

"We are being very careful as to what their first two or three days back look like," said Ryan. "The last thing that we want to do is throw them in with everybody else.

"We had a managed day on Wednesday to see how people react on Thursday and Friday."

The Dragons' return to their training base was dictated by Public Health Wales, who insisted on the full 14 days of quarantine that ultimately led to the Edinburgh game being postponed.

That differs to over the border, with Bristol City having a shorter shutdown after closing their training base on Tuesday.

"We have defintely asked a lot of questions because there is some disparity to situations that have occured in England," said Ryan.

"We want to do the right thing because the last thing that we want to do is put ourselves our our families at risk. We have followed the advice and there are people that are making those decisions higher up."

More coronavirus delays are likely in the cross-border PRO14 but Ryan believes the Dragons have learnt from their enforced lay-off.

"The reality is that we are not playing in bubbles. We are working in a situation of mitigating risk, which means we still go home and go back into the community," he said.

"We are doing our best to mitigate risk when we come back together or travel. It's very difficult when not in a completely controlled situation to understand what the sources are.

"There are definitely learnings but I have been incredibly proud of how we set up the processes that are in place.

"We were able to identify very quickly, we were able to isolate very quickly and ultimately we were able to stop an outbreak situation.

"As with everybody with this virus, we are having to learn all the time. How we learn to keep rugby moving is a constant challenge."