ASTON VILLA’s pre-season plans have been thrown into chaos by Sevilla who have cancelled their UK tour due to Covid worries.
The Spanish side were scheduled to fly to the Midlands tomorrow to face Villa in a pre-season friendly.
But the La Liga outfit have revealed that the game, or any other for that matter until the start of their season, will not go ahead as a precautionary measure.
They wrote on their website: “Sevilla FC have cancelled their trip to Birmingham and tomorrow’s friendly against Aston Villa at Villa Park for reasons relating to COVID-19.
“Sevilla FC will not play any more friendlies before La Liga’s imminent start on 15 August against Rayo Vallecano at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán.”
But Villa have no plans of letting Sevilla’s issues derail their preparation for the new Premier League season which gets underway next week.
On Twitter, the club revealed that they’re already in talks to replace the Spanish side with new opponents.
They wrote: “Aston Villa can confirm that negotiations are currently taking place to source replacement opposition for tomorrow’s fixture that was due to take place with Sevilla at Villa Park.”
Sevilla’s cancellation is the latest in Villa’s turbulent pre-season campaign that’s been marred with Covid troubles.
Their boss Dean Smith had to self-isolate for Villa’s first two friendly matches against Walsall and Stoke City.
Then their game against Nottingham Forest, which was supposed to be live-streamed to fans, was cancelled due to an Covid outbreak at the Championship side.
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A Forest statement released at the time read: “Today’s behind closed doors friendly with Aston Villa due to take place at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath Training Ground has been cancelled.
“The decision was taken in the best interests of both sets of players and staff after a small number of positive cases of Covid-19 were identified within The Reds’ first team squad via the club’s continuous testing programme.
“Those impacted are self-isolating in line with Government guidance.”
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