The New Saints and other clubs in the JD Cymru Premier remain in the dark about what will happen with the remainder of the season, says manager Scott Ruscoe.

Like most leagues globally, the Welsh league has been put on hold in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

However the Saints boss said it remains unclear when, or even if, the season will play out its natural conclusion.

There are six league fixtures remaining during the current campaign, but Ruscoe believes it would be difficult for players to return to action immediately once lockdown measures are lifted, due to a lack of match sharpness.

“It still looks as though the league is following on from the likes of the Premier League,” he said. “There hasn’t been too much communication about it all so we’re just as in the dark with it as everyone else.

“It’s just dragging everything out a bit and we’re unable to feed any information to the players. Players are currently still doing their own programmes, but already we’ve been away for a long time now and players haven’t played football for five or six weeks.

“It’s a long time and players are going to need time to get back to it properly and get up to speed and where they were, so that will take a few weeks. It’s ok setting a date for us to go back, but whether we start playing football straight away is a different matter.”

With the scheduled end to seasons in many leagues fast approaching, attention is turning to footballing bodies to determine whether the seasons will continue indefinitely until finished, or instead be cut short or even voided.

Ruscoe insists the decision is a very difficult one, and any outcome will upset some clubs.

He explained: “We have six games left and obviously a lot can happen during that time. If we cut off the season now, it’s not ideal and I don’t think it’s a fair way of doing things.

“Like I’ve said before, if you look at Liverpool in the Premier League being 21 points clear and one win away from the title, it would be unfair to cut things off early.

“But the longer things go on, the more impact it will have on next season, so someone’s got to make that decision, and ultimately, not everyone’s going to be happy with the outcome.”

If the season is to be completed later in the summer, the Saints manager believes it would be possible to start next season later and play fixtures more regularly to ensure next season would be completed when it is normally expected to be.

He added: “There could be a bit of a crossover, but of course the only problem then is that you have to squeeze more games in next season.

“You would also have to ensure all games are completed before the scheduled end of the following season.

“I think in our league we can certainly fit more games in, because most weeks we only have one match, so there’s definitely scope for playing games twice a week.”