December 25, (THEWILL) –Â Due to a COVID-19 outbreak among the visiting Crystal Palace’s squad, their Boxing Day match against Tottenham Hotspur, at the London Stadium of the hosts, will likely be postponed.
Previous postponements mean both teams have games to make up for. Spurs are three games behind the leaders after having their meetings against Burnley, Brighton, and Leicester postponed, while Palace were unable to face Watford in the last round of Premier League matches.
Two members of Patrick Vieira’s backroom staff have also tested positive.
Prior to hearing the Premier League’s response, Palace’s players waited until Christmas Day to fly to their hotel. The postponement has yet to be confirmed by an official statement.
At his press conference on Friday, Vieira said: “We hope we’re going to be okay [to face Spurs] but when you’re looking at the number of cases around we start to be worried.
“We had a couple of cases in our football club in the last couple of days. We try our best to prevent the situation but it is worrying because the evolution for the next couple of days we don’t know how it will go.
“I’m not worried about the players’ welfare regarding the [frequency of] games during this period because it’s been like that for years and years. I’m worried about their welfare regarding COVID.
“Players coming back from the COVID situation and asking them to play with not enough training is a lot on them.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
