Nod for Blues-City but 2nd Fulham game gets called off
LONDON • Manchester City will be without five players for today’s Premier League trip to Chelsea due to positive coronavirus tests, Pep Guardiola has confirmed, as he defended the decision to postpone Monday’s clash with Everton.
City revealed there had been four positive cases at the club on Christmas Day, including for players Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus.
A further round of testing found three more cases among the City squad on Monday, leading to the match being called off just four hours before kick-off.
“Five players are isolating for 10 days,” said Guardiola on Friday.
“Some of them, the first cases that were released, it was four people – two players – and three more the second time.”
City have not revealed the identity of the other three players to test positive – they will also miss Wednesday’s League Cup semi-final against Manchester United.
The decision to postpone the Everton match attracted some criticism as City did have the required 14 fit senior players by Premier League rules to fulfil the fixture.
Everton said they would be seeking clarification from the league authorities on how the postponement came about. However, Guardiola highlighted the risk of his players passing on the virus to Everton’s squad.
“What happens if we travel on the coach and more players get it?” he said. “And what would happen if the Everton players got infected from us? It was a huge risk.
“Hopefully the next tests everyone is negative and the people who are positive right now can come back without a problem.”
City’s training ground was temporarily closed but reopened on Wednesday after no more new cases were detected from another round of testing.
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard welcomed plans for today’s match to go ahead, but warned there will be further disruption with infection rates across England soaring.
The Premier League announced yesterday that Fulham’s trip to Burnley today has been postponed due to fresh Covid-19 cases at the London club. The move comes after Fulham’s away game against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday was also called off due to a “significant rise” in positive cases within their camp.
The United Kingdom is battling a new variant of the virus and Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered millions more people to live under the strictest restrictions from Thursday to curb its spread after case numbers rose sharply in the last two weeks.
When asked if his players have concerns about playing, Lampard said: “We feel as safe as the general public. We’re in a protective environment. We’re now tested twice a week, which is important.”
The Englishman confirmed that defender Reece James has been ruled out with a muscle injury but winger Hakim Ziyech has returned to training after recovering from a hamstring issue.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
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