Covid-19 leads to Premier League disruptions

Premier League clubs will meet on Monday to discuss the escalating crisis around the coronavirus pandemic.

With 10 games postponed over the past week, including six already from this weekend’s 10-match fixture list, clubs want the chance to discuss the options. Managers and captains are also due to hold their own meetings.

Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard said he hoped the meetings would provide “clarity” to “a lot of concerns and unanswered questions”. Meanwhile, Premier League chief Richard Masters has written to clubs urging players to get the vaccine and stressed the importance of the league completing the season. Brentford boss Thomas Frank led calls for all matches to be called off until 26 December to enable a reset.

Some feel the break should be longer - but others such as Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp do not believe it should happen. The Premier League said on Thursday it intends to carry on playing matches as long as it is safe to do so.

Meanwhile, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been cleared to resume preparations for Sunday’s trip to Newcastle. The Spaniard had returned an inconclusive coronavirus test and cancelled Friday’s news conference, but a subsequent PCR test came back negative. The meeting on Monday will not purely be centred around matches being called off and whether there is to be a break or not. There are also issues around re-arranging the games that have already been postponed. There are concerns over player release for next month’s African Cup of Nations and the January World Cup qualifiers that cover every continent other than Europe. The release of the Nations League fixtures by Uefa on Friday underlined the issues surrounding the crowded match calendar.

England play their first game in Hungary on 4 June, one week after the Champions League final on 28 May, which itself is a week after the final round of Premier League fixtures on 22 May.

With European matches, EFL Cup semi-finals, the FA Cup fifth round and replays for earlier rounds, there are only two completely clear midweeks until the end of the season.