Everton want answers to City situation

LONDON • Everton yesterday requested the Premier League provide "full disclosure" regarding the Covid-19 outbreak at Manchester City, which resulted in their Monday game being postponed.

Just hours before the match was due to kick off at Goodison Park, City said they had returned a number of positive tests in addition to the four cases on Christmas Day that included striker Gabriel Jesus and defender Kyle Walker.

The Premier League then decided to postpone the game - which had been set to be played in front of 2,000 fans - the second top-flight fixture to be pushed back this season due to Covid-19 after Newcastle at Aston Villa earlier this month.

But the Toffees want more clarity on the late call, issuing a statement that read: "Whilst Everton will always have public safety uppermost, we will be requesting full disclosure of all the information that Manchester City provided to the Premier League so the club can be clear on why this decision was taken."

League rules state that a game cannot be postponed unless a team have fewer than 14 players available and while City did not state how many players and staff caught the virus, The Sun said that "half of the team caught Covid".

The club conducted a further round of testing yesterday to determine the extent of the cluster - the results were not known by press time - while their training ground has been closed indefinitely with deep cleaning under way.

The Villa-Newcastle game was delayed to a later date as "a precautionary measure" after five Magpies players were infected and according to the Daily Mail, the same principle has been applied.

City are next scheduled to visit Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday, but Blues manager Frank Lampard is bracing himself for that game to be postponed.

"We'll see what the position is," he said. "It's a key time and a rough time, and we felt that coming with Tier 4 (restrictions) coming in and the surge in Covid (in Britain).

"From our point of view, I will find out more over the next day or two to make sure it has to be safe for the two teams. If not, the (City) game won't go ahead. I'm not surprised because the way Covid is in the UK is difficult for everybody and football isn't very different."

City's League Cup semi-final at Manchester United next week is also in danger of being rearranged. According to British media, the source of the outbreak is believed to be from an unnamed London hotel where City stayed at before last week's League Cup quarter-final at Arsenal.

18 Positive results returned from the Premier League's latest round of testing among players and staff.

2 Clubs will return to being tested twice a week.

While Arsenal have not reported any cases arising from their clash with City, the Gunners revealed on Monday that Gabriel, who was already self-isolating after coming into contact with an individual who had tested positive, had come down with Covid and will miss their next two games at least.

City's cluster does not form part of the 18 positive cases yesterday revealed by the Premier League, the highest number in a week this term. The latest round of tests was conducted between Dec 21 and 27 on 1,479 players and staff and 131 individuals have turned up positive in 17 rounds of testing. The other cases were not identified but the Premier League said they will self-isolate for 10 days.

Southampton revealed yesterday ahead of their home clash against West Ham that their manager Ralph Hasenhuttl was self-isolating following a positive Covid-19 test in his household.

REUTERS