(Reuters) – Norwich City supervisor Dean Smith stated there needs to be a “magic quantity” of COVID-19 circumstances in a crew for a Premier League fixture to be referred to as off.
Norwich had been overwhelmed 2-0 at residence on Tuesday by Smith’s former crew Aston Villa shortly after the league agreed new COVID-19 measures following a file 42 circumstances amongst gamers and workers at golf equipment over the previous week.
Manchester United’s match at Brentford was the second sport postponed this season because of COVID-19 after Tottenham Hotspur’s journey to Brighton & Hove Albion was referred to as off final weekend.
“Our sporting director (Stuart Webber) spoke to the Premier League on steering when we’ve got symptomatic gamers round us,” Smith advised reporters.
“We performed Tottenham, they’d an outbreak. We performed United, they’d an outbreak. We needed steering over would it not be truthful on Villa if we had symptomatic gamers round us?
“I’m not saying all our gamers are symptomatic and have COVID … Grant Hanley did his shoulder on Saturday and Ozan Kabak went down, so we’ve got injured gamers, however we in all probability want a magic quantity telling us what number of is sufficient.”
Smith stated he could not have sufficient match gamers for the West Ham United sport on Saturday.
“I’ll discover out over the following 48 hours from the medical workers about our circumstances. I’ve seen new Premier League protocols the place we’re examined each day. The warmth is on, not simply throughout soccer however throughout the nation.”
Norwich additionally face Arsenal and Crystal Palace this month earlier than assembly Leicester City on New Year’s Day.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
