Man City suffer HUGE Covid outbreak with staggering 21 cases including Pep Guardiola

PEP GUARDIOLA has tested positive for Covid and will miss Friday night’s FA Cup tie at Swindon.

The Manchester City boss and his right hand man Juanma Lillo are both isolating at home after catching the virus.

Pep Guardiola has tested positive for Covid and will miss Manchester City’s FA Cup clash against SwindonThe Citizens are still keen for their FA Cup tie against Swindon on Friday to go ahead

They are among 21 cases at the Etihad – with seven of those affected understood to be players who might have played against the League Two side.

However as things stand, City want the tie to go ahead and are not currently planning to request a postponement.

Coach Rodolfo Borrell will carry out media duties on Thursday afternoon to preview the game and take charge of the team at the County Ground.

Guardiola had a scare ahead of the clash with Newcastle on December 19 when his test came back as ‘inconclusive’.

He later did a PCR test which came back as negative so was able to take charge of the comfortable win at St James’ Park.

However tested positive on Tuesday and will be absent from the Etihad Campus until the middle of next week.

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City will hope it does not affect their preparations for the Prem crunch against Chelsea at the Etihad next Saturday.

Guardiola confirmed on New Year’s Day that midfielder Phil Foden had tested positive ahead of their win at Arsenal – while Kyle Walker had also been affected.

He said: “We’ve had many cases of Covid and many injuries. At Arsenal we were incredibly tired.”

A City statement on Thursday lunchtime read; “Pep Guardiola will miss tomorrow evening’s FA Cup trip to Swindon Town after testing positive for Covid-19.

“The City manager recorded a positive test on Tuesday along with assistant Juanma Lillo.

Guardiola is one of 21 people in the City camp that have contracted the deadly bug

“Both are now isolating, along with a number of other positive cases within the City first team bubble.

“This brings the number of those isolating for Covid related reasons amongst the group to 21.

“Of that number, 14 are backroom staff and seven are first-team players. Assistant coach Rodolfo Borrell will take charge of the team for the trip to Swindon.”

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