West Ham are due to be heading to Australia later to take part in a warm-up for the 2020/21 Premier League season but the Covid-19 pandemic has brought some uncertainty as to whether it will go ahead or not.
David Moyes' side are to take part in the EVA Air Queensland Champions Cup with matches against Brisbane Roar on July 15 in Gold Coast and Crystal Palace three days later on July 18 in Brisbane.
However, with the coronavirus outbreak bringing all football to a halt until at least April 30, and potentially longer than that as it seems quite an optimistic date considering the UK is effectively in lockdown, who knows when football could return.
West Ham's players are due to be back in full training on April 10 at Rush Green but, again, that looks highly unlikely unless the country can get a grip on Covid-19.
UEFA has already announced that Euro 2020 will be pushed back a year to 2021 and European club competition has also been suspended.
The Premier League is also ready to allow seasons to finish beyond the usual June cut-off, meaning that seasons might well finish into the summer months even further,
However, it is going to have a huge knock-on effect for many of the clubs who often use pre-season to head around the globe.
Last year, West Ham took part in the Premier League Asia Trophy out in China to start their pre-season preparations, which resulted in defeats to Manchester City in Nanjing and to Newcastle United in Shanghai before returning to Europe.
The trip to Australia was set to be a fairly lucrative one for the club, who are starting to tour further and further abroad in order to raise the profile of the club across the globe.
Manager David Moyes said of the trip: “It’s not only a great opportunity for West Ham United to play two exciting games in front of our fans Down Under, it’s also a great opportunity to visit a beautiful country which I know loves their sport and is extremely knowledgeable about football.
“I've had the pleasure of going to Brisbane before and it was a fantastic place with warm and friendly people. I’m very much looking forward to going back with West Ham United for what will be an important part of our preparations for the 2020/21 season.”
As it stands, it is too early to say whether the Hammers pre-season trip to Down Under will be called off or still go ahead, we are all waiting to see when the current league campaign will finish.
Football.London understands that there has been no change, yet, but that will obviously be evaluated more and more as when, and if, the Premier League campaign gets underway once again.
