EPL coronavirus cases high with Man United game in doubt

LONDON (AP) — The English Premier League reported its highest weekly coronavirus infections while in talks with Manchester United about postponing Tuesday’s match at Brentford after the club closed its training facility due to an outbreak.

There were 42 cases of COVID-19 in the week to Sunday after 3,805 players and club staff were tested, a jump on the 12 cases in the previous seven days of testing.

Some United players and staff returned tests following the 1-0 win over Norwich on Saturday evening. First-team operations were being halted at the Carrington Training Complex for 24 hours to “minimize risk of any further infection,” United said.

“Given cancellation of training and disruption to the squad,” United said, “and with the health of players and staff the priority, the club is in discussion with the Premier League whether it is safe for Tuesday’s fixture against Brentford to continue, both from a COVID infection and player preparation perspective.

“Team and staff travel to London will be deferred pending the result of that discussion.”

Premier League regulations say matches should be staged if 14 or more players are available, but the competition’s board has flexibility to decide postponements.

The first game to be called off this season due to coronavirus cases was Tottenham’s trip to Brighton on Sunday due to at least eight players at the north London club contracting COVID-19.

It comes amid growing concerns in Britain about the spread of the omicron variant. The government’s appeal for people to get booster vaccines against the coronavirus was backed on Monday by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who urged his staff and players to get jabbed.

“The doctors suggest that they have to do it,” Guardiola said. “Most of us have (had) it already. The players, for their age, the moment they have to do it, everybody is going to decide and they are going to do it.”

The 40 positive cases at the turn of 2021 was the previous highest number of infections at Premier League clubs in a week since testing started to be announced in May 2020.

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