Pressure we are putting on players is lunacy, says Smith

CHELSEA manager Thomas Tuchel and Norwich boss Dean Smith have criticised the decision to go ahead with the festive fixture schedule despite the Omicron outbreak, describing the pressure placed on players as ‘lunacy’.

Three of today’s Premier League games had been postponed by Christmas Eve as a result of player shortages, while clubs returned a record 90 positive tests last week. However, the league ruled out a circuit-breaking halt to matches after a meeting on Monday.

Smith, who reported fresh Covid cases ahead of today’s home game with Arsenal, said: ‘The festive schedule is always difficult but it is nigh on impossible at the moment to ask players to play twice in 48 hours.

I don’t know how we are going to do it. We have had to push rehab forward and people are breaking down because of that.

‘It’s lunacy that we are having to play two games in 48 hours and there has got to be a question about the integrity of the competition when weakened teams are playing.’

Smith, who takes his Norwich side to Crystal Palace on Tuesday, revealed that the Covid crisis has already led him to put players’ welfare in jeopardy. Norwich’s trip to West Ham last weekend was postponed because of illness and injury but Smith revealed he regretted not calling off the home game with Aston Villa on December 14.

‘We are in a dangerous situation where we are risking the health and welfare of the players.

‘Against Villa we had a player playing 90 minutes with a temperature of 38.4, it’s not right,’ he said.

Tuchel, whose Chelsea side travel to Aston Villa today in the first of six matches over a fortnight, called for five substitutes to be reintroduced.

‘Five substitutions came in to protect the players during a difficult period when Covid popped up,’ he said. ‘The situation now is very serious. For the health of the players, if we continue playing we should at least have five substitutions.’