Premier League clubs are reportedly pushing for a festive firebreak to combat the Covid-19 outbreak in squads.
According to a report by the ECHO’s sister title, the Manchester Evening News, clubs are keen on a shutdown until the FA Cup third round starts on January 7.
The report claims that clubs are touting the prospect of shutting down matches until the start of January due to the continued rise in Covid cases across the league.
Should all games be postponed until January 7, then that means the Premier League would not restart until January 15, with at least three rounds of matches being postponed.
Five Premier League matches this weekend have already been postponed, while three were also called off from this week’s schedule.
One of those games to be called off is Everton's clash against Leicester City, which was scheduled to take place at Goodison Park on Sunday.
While Liverpool’s game against Tottenham this weekend remains on despite the Reds being without three players for the game due to positive Covid tests.
It was confirmed before Liverpool’s win over Newcastle United that Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones have all tested positive for Covid and are currently self-isolating.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank said on Thursday that all of this weekend's Premier League matches should be postponed in a bid to "break the chain" on the current crisis.
But speaking after his side’s win over Newcastle, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted he does not see the benefit of stopping the league.
He said: “If we should stop the league, I have no real answer for it. If you stop it for two weeks and we come back, I really don’t know what to do.
“I saw the Everton line-up today, I don’t know half of the players. Stopping the league is probably not the right thing but with the schedule we have to be more flexible.
“We have three players out because of Covid. Then we play on the 26th and the 28th [of December] and you have 13 players available, that’s not possible.
“There are plenty of questions we need to find answers for but I don’t have the solution.”
