The coronavirus pandemic continues to affect all aspects of daily life, with football at the highest levels no exception.
On Monday evening, Everton’s game against Manchester City had to be postponed because of a raft of positive tests at City, and a number of English Football League clubs have found themselves in a similar predicament.
There are already eight games due to be played on December 29 that have had to be postponed:
December 29 Games Off
Championship:
Millwall vs Watford
League One:
AFC Wimbledon vs Ipswich Town
Bristol Rovers vs Portsmouth
Hull City vs Lincoln City
Peterborough United vs Charlton Athletic
Rochdale vs Crewe
Sunderland vs Accrington
League Two
Bolton vs Morecambe
Despite this, according to Sky Sports, the EFL remain confident that they can ride out the problem and have all fixtures fulfilled eventually.
Try telling that to Sunderland who have 13 players affected, per Sky Sports, and Rochdale have had to postpone their next two fixtures in League One against Crewe and MK Dons.
Other teams in the leagues have been affected, not forgetting the outbreak at Newcastle which forced the closure of their training ground.
It’s an untenable situation and even if clubs take heed of new EFL directives such as players arriving individually in cars rather than the team bus, per Sky Sports, sooner or later a big decision needs to be taken.