If the fate of Manchester United's first-team squad proves anything this week it's that once the claws of the latest Covid-19 variant have got a grip they will spread out rapidly and indiscriminately.
A squad that was considered one of the strongest in the Premier League in August could barely muster a five-a-side team by Thursday of this week. The outbreak that began at the weekend has ripped through the squad and staff, resulting in the postponement of games against Brentford and Brighton.
United had nine first-team players available for Tuesday's trip to the capital and after another round of testing at Carrington on Wednesday they were down to seven for the Old Trafford game with Brighton. The absentee list includes players who are injured or not yet match fit after injuries, but the common denominator for most of the casualties is Covid.
There was no option but for Saturday's game to be called off and as of Friday morning it is one of five fixtures this weekend to be postponed due to Covid outbreaks. That's half the schedule and at the speed the omicron variant is spreading nobody would bet against further bad news as Friday progresses.
Some clubs want the season shut down for three weeks, a course of action the Premier League understandably want to avoid. Nobody expects the situation to have improved in three weeks, by when it will just be different clubs suffering outbreaks. If this season is to stand a chance of reaching a conclusion the league has to try and limp on through what promises to be a difficult month to six weeks.
What this latest series of outbreaks could do is change how clubs plan for the January transfer window and a market that could be even more dormant than a year ago, when only five clubs spent money on permanent deals. That came at a time when fixtures were still being played behind closed doors and nobody had a clear idea of when crowds - and therefore matchday revenues - would return.
The situation a year on is a little different. Crowds are back in and while that is always subject to change suddenly, there has been no indication stadiums are close to being shut. Instead, the issue for clubs is the number of their players testing positive for Covid-19.
United's current example is an extreme one and when an outbreak becomes that severe games will obviously be postponed, but there will be occasions when that box isn't ticked. Liverpool played on Thursday after finding three players had tested positive and Chelsea lost Romelu Lukaku on the eve of their game with Everton.
So clubs are not going to be willing to see their squad size shrink too drastically, just in case the players that look to be on the fringes of the side are suddenly required. For United, that could mean Donny van de Beek, Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial are all kept at the club beyond January.
All three will be seeking regular first-team football, something they can't get at Old Trafford, and the trio will also be desperate to start enhancing their World Cup claims, but another Covid outbreak in the United squad could also mean they are all required to play at some point. Under current circumstances, it would be a risk to let any of them go without a replacement. It would only take two or three injuries and positive cases for them to suddenly become regulars again.
Lingard is likely to leave for free in the summer and might have hoped to depart in January - at least on loan - to start playing games. Van de Beek would also have had one eye on a possible loan move and Martial's agent has made it clear he wants to leave the club. In January it would be loan moves only for Van de Beek and Martial but will United really be willing to sanction such deals when it could leave them short-handed?
Finding replacements will also be complicated by the batch of outbreaks. Premier League clubs will feel it's safer to have too many players rather than too few. Clubs on the continent are yet to be impacted in the same way but they might only be a couple of weeks behind the curve in the United Kingdom. If that's the case they will probably take a similar view.
A quiet window won't be disastrous for United - certainly not as grievous a hammer blow as it will be for Newcastle - and the mid-season window is rarely an ideal time for top clubs to be recruiting, which is just as well, as any plans there may have been at Old Trafford could soon be on hold.
