Chelsea match against Manchester City remains in limbo pending next round of COVID-19 testing

After five players and at least two staff members had reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 across two rounds of testing in the past week, Manchester City requested a postponement of their match against Everton, which was supposed to take place last night.

While City could have fielded the 14 players required by Premier League rules for the game go ahead, the league agree to postpone the match out of an abundance of caution. Testing is a trailing indicator of new coronavirus infections, and the last thing the Premier League (or anyone) would want is to keep spreading the disease when viable alternatives are available.

With City shutting down their training ground and all footballing activities for an “indefinite” period, Sunday’s match against Chelsea has been thrown into doubt as well. There is no official word on that yet, but as reported by The Athletic, the fate of the game is likely to be determined by the next round of testing at Manchester City, which is set to take place today.

If the tests come back negative, indicating that the spread has been contained, City will be allowed to return to training and the match on Sunday will probably go ahead. But if further cases are identified, than that much will likely be postponed as well.

It’s probably a similar case for our next match after City’s visits as well, with Morecambe FC also suspending activities after an outbreak at the club.

And so, we wait.