Cup game looks to be back on with players in training
AS THINGS STAND, CITY PREPARE
HOPES of Leicester City fulfilling their Carabao Cup quarter-final trip to Liverpool this week have been boosted as players returned to training.
City closed down first-team operations at their Seagrave base on Thursday as a circuit breaker, with Covid spreading through the squad.
Cases first emerged in the buildup to City’s trip to Napoli a fortnight ago, and further positives on Thursday morning prompted the Premier League matches against Tottenham and Everton to be called off, with the club taking action to try to stem the virus.
After 48 hours of closure, City’s Seagrave base opened up again on Saturday, with the players who are not currently isolating getting back into action.
Among those returning to training are players from the first batch of Covid cases.
City had seven players absent for the Europa League game in Italy because of illness or Covid. Daniel Amartey was the first of those players to return, making his comeback to training on Wednesday before the shutdown, while the others, if well, will also be able to train again after completing their isolation periods.
Among the group that missed the match in Naples were Kelechi Iheanacho, Ademola Lookman, Ayoze Perez and Jannik Vestergaard.
With players returning to the squad, hopes of City being able to take on Liverpool in the last eight of the League Cup are growing, and the game is scheduled to go ahead on Wednesday evening as things stand.
The key factors for City will be assessing the condition of those players who have just returned to the squad, while trying to limit the number of further cases.
Those that tested positive before the Spurs game last week will not be able to play at Anfield and are also expected to miss the scheduled Boxing Day clash with Manchester City.
Brendan Rodgers will hope to have centre-back pair Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu fit for Wednesday’s game after the two postponements gave them an opportunity to recover from hamstring problems they suffered in the club’s last outing, a 4-0 win over Newcastle.
But before City head to Liverpool, Rodgers and Kasper Schmeichel are due to be involved in talks with the other managers and captains from around the Premier League today as clubs decide the best way to approach the latest spike in coronavirus cases.
City’s meeting with Everton was one of six matches to be postponed at the weekend, and so the clubs are to discuss a plan of action for the next few weeks.
Some managers have questioned the integrity of the competition in continuing games while so many squads are affected, while bosses such as Brentford’s Thomas Frank have called for a complete pause to matches in order to halt the spread of the virus and allow squads to recover.
Six of the 10 Premier League games scheduled for the weekend just gone were called off.
One game that went ahead was at Molineux yesterday, much to Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel’s annoyance.
After seeing his Covid-weakened side toil to a 0-0 draw with Wolves and fall further off the pace at the top, the German revealed that he and the club were angry that their request for the game to be postponed had been rejected by the Premier League.