THE Premier League have forced Leicester’s game against Tottenham on Thursday to go ahead despite BOTH clubs wanting the fixture to be postponed due to Covid outbreaks.
Both Brendan Rodgers and Antonio Conte have been hampered by coronavirus cases in their squads.
Spurs’ last two fixtures have been postponed due to several positive cases among players and staff, with their Europa Conference League clash against Rennes and Prem game with Brighton both called off.
Meanwhile, Covid cases and illness left Leicester without seven players for their Europa League defeat to Napoli last week.
The chaos – which includes the Prem recording 42 positive Covid cases in the last week – has seen Leicester and Tottenham call for the game to be pushed back.
But those requests have been denied and the match is set to go ahead as planned.
Speaking about the situation, Rodgers said: “We’ve still got a number of players out.
“We’ve got nine players out through Covid and other medical issues. In terms of Covid, we’re still where we were.”
Then asked whether the Foxes want the match to be postponed, he added: “We’ve looked at that. Unfortunately for us, we weren’t granted any dispensation, which was disappointing.
“We’ve wanted to support the measures, but when we wanted support for the extreme situation we were in, it’s disappointing not to get the support. We were touch and go for the Newcastle game.
“We’ve picked up a couple of injuries as well, that are Covid related because we can’t rotate the team. We’ll put out the best team we can.”
Conte was asked the same question by reporters ahead of the game and had a similar response to Rodgers.
The Italian said: “Yeah [we asked for the match to be postponed], but for me it’s very difficult to speak about this topic.
“For sure, the Premier League didn’t want to postpone the game against Leicester, maybe because we have to play against Burnley and Brighton. We postponed two games before. I can understand, we can understand.
“On the other hand, I think we deserve to play our chance against Rennes to go to the next group.
“We don’t find a good solution between Uefa and Premier League, why Tottenham has to pay for this? It’s not fair we have to pay for a situation that isn’t our fault.
“I understand if we did something wrong but in this way, for the club, the players, the staff, it’s very difficult to understand what’s happening.”
TWO MATCHES AXED
Two Prem matches have already been postponed this season due to Covid cases – Brighton vs Tottenham and Brentford vs Manchester United.
Spurs have also seen their clash with Burnley called off due to snow.
But there is no specific threshold for Prem matches to be postponed due to Covid-related reasons.
Each case is analysed on its own merits, with the league determining on this occasion that the Leicester-Spurs match is safe to take place.
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