Eight affected but Blackpool is on, for now
BURTON Albion’s scheduled game away to Blackpool on Saturday remains on at the moment – but that may depend on the results of further Covid-19 tests tomorrow.
The Brewers announced at the weekend that the game they were due to play at home to Shrewsbury Town tonight was being postponed owing to a number of positive Covid tests in the squad and staff.
Hasselbaink has now revealed that the number involved is eight. But some tested positive as long ago as last Tuesday and, in theory, may have completed a 10-day isolation in time to be involved against Blackpool.
Hasselbaink, who tested negative, those of the squad who are also still virus-free, and the staff, are unable to return to the Pirelli Stadium until tomorrow.
The manager confirmed the current timetable for dealing with the outbreak – and his frustration that they may have to go into the Blackpool game relatively unprepared.
“The club is closed down for now,” he said, with reference to the stadium.
“We are not allowed in until Wednesday and then we will be tested again.
“On Wednesday evening we will get the results and then we will see what will happen.
“The club will be disinfected and all that kind of stuff, to make sure the bug is out of the club, if it was there.
“At the moment, the Saturday game against Blackpool is on and I find that bizarre.
“The players who are infected can do nothing but the other players who are not infected can only do fitness work.
“We can’t do anything as a group, so when they come back we would only have two days.
“If that game goes on, they will be open for injuries because they will have had five days off, then they will have to put that amount of stress on their bodies.
“But we’ll see what they say on Wednesday and take it from there.
“It is eight people in total who are affected.
“That is big enough to affect the squad because, as you know, eight is a lot of people in our squad.
“On Tuesday we had a few, on Saturday we had a few more and that is the danger, of it escalating, so everyone needs to be away from each other to stop the bug going any further.
“But you want to be working with the players day in, day out. That has stopped and it’s obviously a big problem.”