Tottenham’s Europa Conference League clash with Rennes is POSTPONED amid the club’s Covid crisis… with the first-team area of their training ground closed as they try to tackle the outbreak
- Tottenham have reported at least 13 positive coronavirus cases, with 11 players
- UEFA have allowed the Premier League side to postpone their clash with Rennes
- Antonio Conte was visibly upset when speaking about the crisis on Wednesday
- Tottenham confirmed the first-team area of their training ground would be shut
Tottenham have won their battle to postpone Thursday night’s clash against Rennes after a Covid outbreak ripped through their squad.
Sportsmail broke the news on Wednesday evening that the European Conference League match was to be called off. And Spurs confirmed the news at 9pm due to ‘a number of Covid cases at the club’.
But in a fresh twist, Tottenham’s statement also confirmed that the first-team area of their training ground would be shut — which casts huge doubt over their Premier League fixture against Brighton on Sunday.
Tottenham’s Europa Conference League clash against Rennes has been postponed
Spurs officials had been in talks with UEFA on Wednesday with a view to getting the game against Rennes halted after the club reported 17 Covid cases — eight players and nine members of staff. The outbreak is also understood to have reached the Under 23 squad.
UEFA rules state that a team must fulfil a fixture if they have at least 13 fit players including a goalkeeper. Spurs were understood to have just about enough players available, without the suspended Ryan Sessegnon plus their injured and Covid-affected players, to meet that threshold.
But with their squad so severely weakened, they hoped common sense would prevail. There were also concerns about forcing Rennes to travel into a seemingly unsafe environment.
Spurs now face the tricky task of rescheduling the fixture before the December 31 date UEFA has set for all group games to be played. They have a jam-packed schedule with six other games to play this month, and could ask the Premier League to postpone a fixture or request that the EFL reschedule their Carabao Cup quarter-final with West Ham.
The feeling at the club on Wednesday night was that they would seek a re-arrangement of the Rennes game rather than consider forfeiting.
The news will delight manager Antonio Conte, who on Wednesday revealed the players were ‘scared’ of passing the virus on to their families and insisted that the game should not go ahead.
A visibly upset Conte said: ‘The problem is every day we are having people with Covid.
It comes after the club reported at least 13 positive coronavirus cases – including 11 players
‘People who yesterday weren’t positive, today are positive, and we continue to have contact. This is a serious problem. Not a good situation. Every day we are having positives.
‘Everyone is a bit scared because we all have family and (think) why do I have to take this risk?
‘There are situations that made me very, very upset, very upset because the situation is serious and it is contagious and there is a big infection and now for sure we are a bit scared because tomorrow we don’t know what happens. Today we had the training session, we prepared the game and yesterday two other positives, today two other positives and tomorrow, who?
‘Me? Maybe. Better me than a player for sure but I think that it is not right for everyone because we have family and we have contact with them.’
Wednesday’s two positive results came following standard pre-match UEFA Covid checks. Given the outbreak, Spurs could conduct more on Thursday, raising the prospect of learning that the virus has spread further.
Spurs will be hopeful of rearranging Sunday’s trip to Brighton after Newcastle, Aston Villa, Fulham and Manchester City had games called off last season due to similar-sized outbreaks.
With those who have tested positive forced to isolate for 10 days, Spurs could also have issues with their games next week — at Leicester and at home against Liverpool.
Spurs’ outbreak began ahead of Sunday’s 3-0 win over Norwich, who were made aware of the situation and non-involvement of those affected players whose status was known at the time.
Norwich’s players were back in yesterday and tested with no issues reported.
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