On Monday evening it was announced that Manchester City had had to close their training ground because of a coronavirus outbreak that has affected their squad.
The Daily Star note that there have been five more positive cases of Covid-19 at the club, to add to those of first-team players, Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus, as well as two members of staff at the club.
It’s clearly thrown Pep Guardiola’s plans into disarray and it saw the immediate postponement of the Premier League fixture against Everton, which was due to be the late kick-off on Monday night.
Given the scale of the outbreak and the close proximity to City’s next fixture against Chelsea, that match must also now be in doubt.
Under normal circumstances, next week’s Carabao Cup semi-final, against rivals Man United, would probably see the Red Devils given a bye into the final, but the Daily Star note that the forfeit rules only apply up to and including round four.
That means that any game against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side will only be postponed, and played at a later date.