Premier League - Four more matches postponed due to Covid-19 outbreaks
Updated 16/12/2021 at 19:12 GMT
Southampton v Brentford, Watford v Crystal Palace, West Ham v Norwich and Everton v Leicester followed the earlier calling off of Manchester United's clash with Brighton ahead of the weekend. "The league understands fans will be disappointed these matches have had to be postponed and apologises for the inconvenience and disruption caused," said a statement from the Premier League.
Four more Premier League weekend fixtures have been postponed due to Covid-19 outbreaks.
Southampton v Brentford, Watford v Crystal Palace, West Ham v Norwich and Everton v Leicester have all been called off.
This follows the earlier postponement of Manchester United's clash with Brighton, leaving just five games scheduled.
A statement from the Premier League read: "The league understands fans will be disappointed these matches have had to be postponed and apologises for the inconvenience and disruption caused. All other fixtures due to be played this weekend are currently scheduled to proceed as planned.
"The board has agreed to postpone the matches after assessing individual club requests this evening."
Leicester City's clash with Tottenham was also postponed earlier on Thursday.
The Premier League has insisted that it intends to press ahead with fixtures where safe, but further postponements may yet be necessary.
Three Liverpool players - Virgil Van Dijk, Curtis Jones and Fabinho - will miss their visit to Tottenham after returning suspected positive tests.
Brentford, Watford, Leicester and Norwich are all dealing with outbreaks.
The former three clubs have closed their training grounds in a bid to contain the spread.
The Premier League reintroduced "emergency measures" this week after recording the highest total of positive cases in a single week since the start of the pandemic.
"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," the league outlined.
"These include protocols such as more frequent testing, wearing face coverings while indoors, observing social distancing and limiting treatment time."
Brentford manager Thomas Frank has called for a one-week suspension of all fixtures, along with next week's Carabao Cup quarter-finals, in the hope of controlling a rapidly-evolving situation.
Reflecting a wider surge in cases across the United Kingdom driven by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, the Premier League is likely to again record new high figures for weekly positives.
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