Sport is nothing without its unpredictability. 

One only needs to cast an eye towards events over the weekend for ample proof of that. At the Tokyo Olympics, Jade Jones was knocked out in her first match of the Taekwondo – an event she was hot favourite for after gold medals at each of the last two Games – to Kimia Alizadeh, an Iranian without a country who was representing the Refugee Olympic Team having defected from her homeland last year due to female oppression. 

In the tennis competition, Ash Barty, the world No.1, who only won Wimbledon a fortnight ago, was sent packing in straight sets by Sorribes Tormo, an unheralded Spaniard ranked No.48 by the LTA. Meanwhile, in the cycling road race, an incredible sequence of affairs played out when Anna Kiesenhofer produced the performance of a lifetime to shock the rest of the field. Indeed, so far ahead was the Austrian of the chasing pack that Dutch rider Annemiek Van Vleuten crossed the line with her arms aloft and in tears of joy believing she was the winner. Meanwhile, in Cape Town, South Africa and the Lions played an attritional, memorable first Test that seemed destined at half time to go the way of the Springboks, who at that point held a 12-3 lead, only for the tourists to come storming back in the second half.

These have been successful openings for two sporting events that have been dominated by headlines about Covid. The Olympics, of course, had already been postponed for a year prior to the opening ceremony on Friday evening and in pushing ahead with the Games in the midst of the pandemic, thus opening up the country's borders to thousands of foreigners during a state of emergency, the Japanese government has come in for widespread criticism. Indeed, during one ironic moment as the opening ceremony stopped for a moment's silence in memory of the victims of the pandemic, protestors outside the stadium could be heard voicing their displeasure.

Eight thousand-odd miles across the globe, there was relief expressed two Fridays ago by Warren Gatland, the Lions head coach, when his squad returned a full quota of negative Covid tests and possibly a certain amount of glee when all of the Test matches were moved to Cape Town thus denying the Springboks the advantage of playing games in Johannesburg and Gauteng where altitude would have favoured Rassie Erasmus' side.

Back in Tokyo, Jones said the absence of her family had played a part in her defeat, while those who took in Barty's insipid performance against Tormo believed the Australian might have struggled to get going given that her match was watched by a mere nine spectators in contrast to the packed housed that was in attendance for her Wimbledon final victory. Certainly, as Van Vleuten's error demonstrated, sport in the time of Covid is as unpredictable as ever.

This is in comparison to Covid itself, which is utterly predictable in its ability to stick around. As of yesterday, Scottish government figures reported that more than three million people had received their second dose of vaccination, yet there has been a rise in the number of people – from 1 in 90 to 1 in 80 – who have been infected according to the Office for National Statistics. Meanwhile, we know that the Delta variant is spreading faster across Europe than the Alpha variant and that we are in the midst of a third wave.

And so to Scottish football. Five Premier Sports Cup games have so far bitten the dust due to Covid-19 outbreaks among a number of squads, the most punitively hit being Falkirk who had to forego three points each in the games against Ayr United and Edinburgh City. The former result – an automatic 3-0 win over Ayr – ensured that David Hopkin's men topped their group. Meanwhile, Dundee reported yesterday that a member of their squad has tested positive and others are isolating less than a week before the start of the Premiership season.

Last week Graham Alexander, the Motherwell manager, warned that if the Scottish government did not look at its current restrictions on Covid, then the forthcoming season might well go the same way as that of 2019/20 when the campaign was cancelled amid acrimony between clubs and the controversial relegation of Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer. Alexander's argument was that special exemption should be granted to players allowing them to train and play if they returned negative tests despite being close contacts of individuals who had tested positive.

The spectre of 2019/20 appeals to no-one. The Premiership campaign was treated by some disingenuous types as one with an asterisk beside it as Celtic's title credentials were called into question despite Rangers manager Steven Gerrard effectively chucking in the towel on the season in the aftermath of a Scottish Cup defeat at Hearts. If you look hard enough there are always reasons to question victories on the pitch: a club with a financial advantage, an injury crisis, a flu outbreak in a squad or a sequence of refereeing decisions that go against your team.

But attempting to ensure everyone is happy really isn't the issue in this matter. In the end it comes down to that which you think is more important: a total reopening of society with all the risks that it entails or holding off for a little longer to save lives. Put me on the side of safety first.