The number of postponed games from the English Championship due to covid-19 increased on Thursday to six.
First, it was announced the postponement of the duel between Leicester and Tottenham, which would take place on Thursday, and then the meeting between Manchester United and Brighton, scheduled for Saturday. Then it was time for four more games, including the postponement of another Leicester game, which was scheduled for Sunday against Everton.
The other games postponed should have been played on Thursday and will be played over the weekend are Brentford-Southampton, Watford-Crystal Palace and West Ham-Norwich.
“Leicester City can confirm that the management of the Premier League (the organization that organizes English football) has decided to postpone Thursday’s game against Tottenham”, referring to the 17th round of the Premier League, the club said, before knowing that its next appointment for the tournament, against Everton, would be postponed.
The #PL Board has postponed a further four matches due to be played this weekend because of an increase in positive COVID-19 cases
Full details: https://t.co/9rUcsajUAj#SOUBRE | #WATCRY | #WHUNOR | #EVELEI pic.twitter.com/NeoGSHSF6t
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 16, 2021
“The club doesn’t have any more players able to play the game,” explained Leicester, whose request to postpone the match against Tottenham had been rejected the day before.
The Foxes also announced that it would close its training center for 48 hours “to help contain the spread (of contagion).”
A little later, the Premier League postponed the compromise between Manchester United and Brighton, concerning the 18th round of the championship.
United “continues to suffer an epidemic of covid-19 cases in their team that does not allow them to list players needed for the match scheduled for Old Trafford,” explained the entity.
The Red Devils game against Brentford on Tuesday had already been postponed, but “further positive tests were confirmed today (Thursday),” added the Premier League.
In total, nine Premier League games have been postponed for health reasons at the time, including Tottenham-Brighton last Sunday and Burnley-Watford, also postponed last weekend two hours before the match kicks off.
– Possibility of postponing the 18th round –
United Kingdom is experiencing another wave of infections due to the spread of the new variant of the coronavirus, called omicron, with 78,610 cases registered on Wednesday.
The Leicester coach criticized the lack of Premier League support after reporting that he has nine players sidelined because of covid, other illnesses or injuries.
“We’ve always tried to support (combat covid) measures, but when we needed a little support in the extreme situation we found ourselves in, we couldn’t get it,” lamented Brendan Rodgers.
New covid-19 positive cases were reported to have been diagnosed in the Foxes, but Rodgers did not provide the exact number.
This Thursday, Brentford’s coach, the Danish Thomas Frank, asked to postpone all English matches scheduled for this weekend.
“The number of covid cases is skyrocketing across all clubs. Everyone faces that (…) Defer this round and also (the quarter finals) the FA Cup (with games on Tuesday and Wednesday next week). I would give everyone at least a week or four or five days to sanitize” the boot camp, the trainer said.
“That would make it possible to stop the spread (of contagion) in all clubs,” insisted Frank.
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