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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tom Clark

West Ham preparing for Tottenham clash despite Norwich postponement due to COVID outbreak

West Ham's Premier League match against Norwich City on Saturday has been postponed due to a Covid outbreak in the Canaries' camp.

The number of Covid cases combined with injuries and other illnesses saw Dean Smith's team have an insufficient number of players to complete the fixture and the Premier League agreed to suspend the match. football.london understands that West Ham have accepted the Premier League's decision despite not having any cases of Covid amongst their own squad.

The visit of Norwich is the fifth Premier League match to have been postponed this weekend joining Southampton vs Brentford, Watford vs Crystal Palace, Manchester United vs Brighton and Everton vs Leicester and a host of EFL games to be called off.

In a statement, the Premier League said: "Norwich City FC have an insufficient number of players available to fulfill their match due to COVID-19, injuries and other illnesses."

They continued: "With the health and wellbeing of all players and staff the priority, and in light of the recent rise in COVID-19 cases across the country, the Premier League has reintroduced Emergency Measures.

"These include protocols such as more frequent testing, wearing face coverings while indoors, observing social distancing and limiting treatment time."

football.london understands that as West Ham have no cases of Covid in their squad they are training at their Rush Green base as usual in preparation for the Carabao Cup match against Tottenham on Wednesday evening.

The Hammers squad are doing all they can to avoid the virus according to manager David Moyes: "We are doing everything we possibly can, we are wearing masks when we're indoors, we are washing our hands, we are sending messages to the players regularly about what to do, so we are trying to do everything."

Do you think the Premier League should pause to deal with the latest surge in Covid cases? Have your say below

However, the boss did admit that a number of his players are yet to receive their first dose of the Covid vaccine.

"We are getting quite a lot of boosters, and if there is anybody still short of a second vaccination [they will be offered it], and yes we have got some players who have not taken their first injection but we think they may take it this weekend.

"We have got some doctors and nurses coming to help us at the weekend and hopefully, it will see a few more people closer to being vaccinated than not so I think it is important we really try to get as many vaccinated and healthy as we can."

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