Antonio Conte looked visibly distressed as he confirmed that eight of Tottenham’s first-team players and five members of staff have now tested positive for Covid-19.
Spurs have been hit by a Covid outbreak at the club’s training ground this week and addressing the media on Wednesday afternoon via Zoom, Conte confirmed that the situation was “serious” and that “everyone is scared” about transmitting the virus to their families.
“The situation is serious,” said Conte. “The problem is that every day we are having people with Covid. This is a serious problem.”
As it stands, Tottenham’s Europa Conference League game against Ligue 1 side Rennes will go ahead as scheduled due to Uefa’s rules regarding the virus. If a club has 13 available first-team players including at least one goalkeeper, they are expected to fulfil their fixtures in the competition or else face sanctions from European football’s governing body.
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Although Conte revealed that one of the 11 players he had counted on being available had since tested positive, Spurs are believed to have enough U23 players to fill gaps in their first-team squad. Spurs need to better Vitesse Arnhem’s result against NS Mura in order to qualify for the next round of the competition.
While Conte avoided openly criticising Uefa, he made his stance about the situation clear. “Tomorrow, who? Me? Another player? Another member of staff? And we continue in this way,” he said. “Every day we are having contact with people that are false negative and then become positive and everyone is a bit scared because we all have family. Why do I have to take the risk? I think it is not right for everyone because we have family and we have contact with them when we come back home.”
He added: “Today we prepared for the game against Rennes and had an hour-and-a-half training session. Tomorrow we planned to have a session in the morning to prepare set-pieces. But then I finished the training session and another player [was] added to the list [of positives], another member of staff added to the list. Players that you have had contact with today. This is the problem.”
Tottenham have made a request to have Sunday’s match with Brighton postponed and will expect more sympathy from the Premier League than Uefa given the league’s response to previous Covid-related issues. Last season, the Premier League postponed six matches including Tottenham’s game against Fulham in December, because of spiralling cases at one club.
Postponements are decided on a case-by-case basis by a Premier League board, but Spurs are believed to have a higher number of cases than clubs who succeeded with postponement requests last season. No games have yet been delayed this season because of Covid. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he was “surprised” that his side’s opening game against Brentford was not rescheduled after four players tested positive.
The only game to have been called off this season was Tottenham’s match against Burnley on 28 November and that was due to adverse weather conditions. If Spurs succeed in having their game against Brighton moved, they will have two games in hand over most other clubs in the division. It is unclear at this stage whether they will request another postponement for the match against Leicester next Thursday.
Conte, meanwhile, refused to confirm whether the cases were linked to the new Omicron variant or if those affected had been double vaccinated.
“I can answer this question about myself and I am vaccinated,” he said. “I think everyone takes the best decision. Honestly, this is a question for the doctors and medical department about whether people are vaccinated or not.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3IwQ3oh
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