Tottenham Hotspur's Christmas schedule has been thrown into disarray following a suspected outbreak of Covid-19 across the club, with a number of players and coaching staff testing positive.
The results came from routine lateral flow tests that were taken yesterday and all will take PCR tests this morning to confirm.
Antonio Conte's team face Rennes in their final Europa Conference League game on Thursday and UEFA rules indicate that a match would only be in jeopardy if "less than 13 players registered on the A list or no registered goalkeeper are available".
If the case number does not increase in the next 48 hours that means Spurs would need fulfil that fixture on Thursday night. They must win to advance to the knockout stages.
But it remains unclear if Sunday's Premier League game away to Brighton and Hove Albion will be impacted.
The Premier League's rulebook states "permission will not be granted to postpone a league match where the applicant club has 14 or more players listed on its squad list available" but when it comes to coronavirus requests a club can apply for a postponement and the league's board will then convene and make a decision based on medical evidence and other potential factors.
Several games were moved last season following outbreaks, including Tottenham's game against Fulham but othe opening day of this season Arsenal played away to Brentford despite having four players out as a result of contracting the virus.
“I was surprised, but the regulators decided that the best thing to do was to play the game,” Mikel Arteta said, via the Times. “We did what we had to do through the club, through the club doctor, [to manage] how things developed and the risk we could see there.”
The positive cases must isolate for 10 days in line with government guidance, which would also almost certainly rule them out of the game against Leicester on Thursday week before Conte's side face Liverpool three days later.
Yesterday the Premier League confirmed 12 positive results from 3,154 players and club staff in the latest round of testing.
