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Aston Villa have confirmed their FA Cup tie with Liverpool on Friday night will go ahead but Wednesday’s Premier League game against Tottenham is in doubt after an outbreak of coronavirus in the first-team squad.
Villa’s chief executive Christian Purslow has confirmed that 10 first-team players are among 14 positive cases of Covid-19 at the club.
Villa are therefore set to be without their entire first team for the Liverpool tie, along with boss Dean Smith and assistants John Terry, Craig Shakespeare and Richard O’Kelly, as they are isolating.
But despite fears the game could be postponed, Villa confirmed on Friday morning on their official Twitter account the match would be played.
The Premier League side will be relying on their U23s and U18s, who were all tested for the virus on Thursday, to play the tie against the reigning champions of England.
Villa’s U23s coach Mark Delaney will take charge of the team.
Purslow said, “We have obviously been faced with a rather difficult situation.
“Two days ago we became aware of a significant spike in positive corona tests within our first team squad.
“In the last six days, we went from no positive tests to 14 positive tests as of early yesterday (Thursday) morning, including I think 10 first team players.
“At that moment, we had to take the decision to get everybody in the first team squad into isolation.
“We spent most of yesterday afternoon seeing if we can pull together a team to fulfil the fixture tonight.
“I am delighted to say we pulled together a whole set of young players, who were tested yesterday afternoon, and we are able to put a team out tonight.”
Asked if he was worried the game might be uncompetitive against the Premier League champions, Purslow added: “It is not really a
primary concern.
“We are in the middle of a very nasty, out of control, coronavirus outbreak in our club.
“This is a dream opportunity for some very young players to play against Premier League, European and world champions.”
Regarding the procedure for the coming days, Purslow said: “There will be more testing this weekend but it is much too early to tell how long the training ground will be closed for.
“It’s also too early to talk about next week’s fixtures (PL games against Spurs and Everton).
“We are now in the hands of the Premier League medical people, Public Health England, and the experts will have to form an opinion as to whether the outbreak has been contained.
“We will wait for the next round of testing this weekend.”
Vincent Paul
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