THE chaos continues for the Newcastle Jets after their third consecutive A-League game was called off on Friday - but there are growing fears the worst could be yet to come.
Newcastle were set to play Wellington at Kogarah Stadium on Saturday but the game has been deferred indefinitely because COVID-19 cases left the Phoenix unable to field a team.
The Jets have already had home games against Western Sydney (December 26) and Melbourne City (January 1) placed on hold because of coronavirus issues.
Unlike Newcastle's A-League Women's team, who this week reported 12 positive cases and were forced to defer a home game against Melbourne Victory, the men have been relatively unscathed.
Three Jets players - Angus Thurgate, Jordan Elsey and Noah James - contracted the virus before Christmas but have since recovered and are back in training.
The Jets' men are currently COVID-free.
Meanwhile, most of their rival clubs have reported wholesale cases, which explains the procession of postponements.
There is concern that the situation could turn around and disadvantage Newcastle later in the season.
Players who have been infected should recover and be able to resume playing within a few weeks, or even sooner, depending on their symptoms.
They will then theoretically be unlikely to catch the virus again for several months.
So clubs that are struggling to field a team now might well be at full strength later in the season.
The Jets, on the other hand, could potentially encounter an outbreak at a point in their campaign when they are dealing with a backlog of catch-up games.
"The same guidelines will apply to us that have applied to everyone else," Jets chief executive Shane Mattiske told the Newcastle Herald.
"If we do end up getting large numbers of players catching coronavirus we would expect that our games will be postponed.
"But look, we're doing everything we can to prevent coronavirus from entering our environment.
"Ultimately that's something we'll deal with if and when it happens."
Mattiske said it was "a credit to the players" that they had minimised their chances of exposure, especially over the festive season.
It is understood that while the Jets were the first A-League club to report positive swabs, they have had fewer cases than any other team
Mattiske said "we'll continue to be vigilant" but accepted that further infections were almost inevitable.
Newcastle's last game was a 2-1 loss to Macarthur FC on December 19.
They are next scheduled to play Central Coast in Gosford on January 15, so if that proceeds, it will be almost a month between games.
The Mariners haven't played since a 2-0 win against Wanderers on December 18.
The backlog of fixtures shapes as a logistical nightmare, not only for the Jets, but also A-League officials.
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