Scottish football below the Premiership and Championship has been forced into a three-week break amid surging Covid cases.
The executive decision has been made after talks with the Scottish Government on Monday with a host of teams heading back into cold storage.
Championship teams now must test players once a week and Scottish Cup games look to set to be called off for the time being with the third round scheduled to be played at the end of the month.
Rising hospital admissions has put our game back in the spotlight with both Nicola Sturgeon and Jason Leitch conceding in recent days they were keeping an close eye on if elite sport can continue as the country remains in lockdown.
The latest update is sure top raise further questions over Scottish football's sustainability and whether or not the top two leagues will continue.
Celtic will be without at least 13 players and three members of their coaching staff for their clash with Hibs on Monday night.
Scottish FA president Rod Petrie said: “The Scottish FA is well aware of the efforts all clubs take to comply with the exacting protocols that were conditional on elite football being given an exemption to continue amid the pandemic.
“Nonetheless the continuation of football at all levels has weighed increasingly heavy on me as president, my colleagues on the board and the Joint Response Group as we have watched the new strain of the virus spread rapidly.
“While the national sport has been afforded the privilege of elite sporting exemption, the risk of mass transportation of untested, largely part-time players is something that cannot be sustained as the cases continue to rise and available hospital beds become increasingly scarce.
“After discussions with the SPFL, the Premiership and Championship will continue on the proviso that both adhere to the existing testing regime. The vast majority of teams in those divisions are full-time professional clubs and so the risk of transmission remains manageably low. The cost implications to lower-division clubs was one factor but so too the realisation that many – with some notable exceptions – consist of part-time players who are either prevented from working due to the virus or have to work.
“In either case, the risk is currently too great amid the developing nationwide spread of the virus."
