Injury puts Wood in doubt for restart of EPL
All Whites star Chris Wood is racing time to be fit for the resumption of the English Premier League football season.
The Burnley striker is battling an Achilles tendon injury, which could rule him out of the club’s first league game back against Manchester City on June 23.
Like almost every sports leagues around the world, the English Premier League was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘‘Woody has a bit of a problem with his Achilles,’’ Burnley manager Sean Dyche told the club’s website. ‘‘We’re not sure on Woody yet. He’s going to have to take his time on that and see how that settles down.’’
Not surprisingly, Wood sat out Burnley’s 1-1 warmup match against Championship club Preston North End at Turf Moor yesterday.
Burnley sit 10th on the Premier League table on 39 points with nine games remaining for the Clarets – 12 points clear of the relegation zone.
Wood had been having a strong season for Burnley before Covid-19 halted play, having scored 11 goals in 26 league games – his most in a season for the club.
That is good enough for 11th equal in the Premier League with Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy the leading scorer with 19 goals.
A Norwich player is set to miss the restart of the Premier League season after testing positive for coronavirus.
The unnamed player was one of two positive results from the 1200 tests late last week and must now isolate for seven days before being tested again, with the Canaries facing Southampton on Friday.
The player must return a negative test result before being able to resume training.
One individual at another club, as yet unidentified, also tested positive.
Norwich played Tottenham in a friendly on Friday, but players from neither set of clubs who may have come in contact with the player will have to self-isolate as they will not have deemed to have been in contact for long enough, according to government advice.
The low number of positive tests in the eighth round of testing will again be seen as good news for Project Restart, with the competition due to resume in five days.
Aston Villa and Sheffield United kick things off on Thursday morning before Manchester City take on Arsenal later the same day. PA