Newcastle United have been forced to shut down their training ground on Tuesday ahead of the trip to Aston Villa on Friday evening after further coronavirus cases, it’s been claimed.
Steve Bruce is set to return to Villa Park with the Magpies before the weekend begins, fresh from a victory at Crystal Palace last time out.
Yet their preparations for the clash with the Villans have been heavily disrupted after an outbreak of Covid which hit them before their trip to Selhurst Park.
Four players and one member of staff have tested positive, reports the Telegraph, and in order to ensure that the outbreak doesn’t affect the personnel further ahead of the trip to Villa, Newcastle have supposedly taken the decision to close off the training ground on Tuesday.
All members of staff, coaches and players included, will be tested on Wednesday.
Chances of the game against Villa being called off are believed to be quite unlikely, though; the Premier League are reluctant to cause a further fixture pile-up amid an already congested schedule.
It’s understood that, unless any given club who has been seriously hit by Covid has less than 14 senior players to compete with, matches will generally go ahead but Newcastle could request a deferral to the fixture if their number of cases is worse than first feared.
Source – Birmingham Live