December 15 – The surge in the number of positive cases of the coronavirus across England has struck the Premier League for the second time in two days with Leicester City’s home game against Tottenham tonight (Thursday) being postponed.
It is the fourth top-flight game to be cancelled in the past week. Yesterday Burnley’s home fixture against Watford was postponed two and a half hours before kick-off after a covid outbreak left them without enough players to play the match.
The Premier League said that the decision to postpone tonight’s game at Leicester was taken following an increase in positive cases within Leicester’s squad today. Leicester had hoped to contain the outbreak having closed its training ground for the past 48 hours.
“In light of the new information, Leicester applied [on Thursday] for the fixture to be called off due to an ongoing outbreak within the squad, which has resulted in more players and staff testing positive for Covid-19 today. This has left the club with an insufficient number of players available to fulfil the game,” said the Premier League.
The postponement is ironic as Spurs had previously requested the match be shifted to allow them to play their Europa Conference League game with Rennes, which was called off last week after a Covid outbreak. Spurs also had to call off their game against Brighton at the weekend but have since been cleared to return to play.
Premier League clubs across the country, without exception, have been battling to contain the spread of the virus. Manchester United, who had their game against Brentford postponed at the weekend, have only just been able to re-open their training ground.
Brentford coach Thomas Frank has called for all this weekend’s Premier League fixtures to be postponed in attempt to provide a circuit break to gain control of the rate of infection.
Currently all Premier League games this weekend are going ahead as scheduled. Clubs are now conducting a Premier League mandated daily covid testing regime of all staff and players.
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