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Tottenham Hotspur are facing a significant headache on their fixture list in the coming weeks after the Premier League board sanctioned their request to postpone Sunday’s game against Brighton in the hours after UEFA took similar steps to delay a Europa Conference League tie with Rennes.
Tottenham have been hit by a raft of COVID-19 cases in their first team — Antonio Conte put the number at eight first team players and five members of staff in a press conference yesterday — and have closed their Hotspur Way training ground to avoid any further cases. With players and their head coach “scared” to go into work the Premier League board backed Spurs’ request to delay the fixture at a meeting on Thursday afternoon.
A statement from the league said: “The Premier League board has taken the decision to postpone the game following guidance from medical advisers, with the health of players and staff the priority.” It added: “The postponed fixture will be rescheduled in due course and the Premier League wishes a quick recovery to those with COVID-19.”
Though news of the postponement will doubtless be welcomed by Conte and his players they will face a sizeable tranche of extra fixtures to make up in the coming weeks. There is even the possibility of that list expanding with Thursday’s Premier League game away to Leicester City — who had to leave seven players behind for their Europa League match against Napoli due to their own COVID-19 outbreak — now up in the air. Any players from both sides who were sent home from training on Tuesday or later would be unable to return to work with U.K. guidelines requiring they isolate for 10 days.
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Source : cbssports
