Benjamin Mendy Violation of the Covid-19 rule: Manchester City ‘disappointed’ and will investigate the incident | Football news

Manchester City will launch an internal investigation after Benjamin Mendy appeared to violate coronavirus rules by hosting a New Years Eve party.

The city says they are “disappointed” by the incident, although they felt that certain parts of the story had been “misinterpreted” by sections of the media.

Pep Guardiola’s team does not have five players for Sunday’s Premier League home game against Chelsea – live Sky sports – due to an outbreak of positive coronavirus tests within his squad.

Sunday January 3 4:15 pm

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“The club is aware of a Covid-19 violation on New Year’s Eve that involved Benjamin Mendy and subsequent media that reported it,” City said in a statement.

“While it is understood that elements of this incident have been misinterpreted in reports and that the player has publicly apologized for his error, the club is disappointed to learn of the violation and will conduct an internal investigation.”

City’s last game against Everton was canceled due to fears about the spread of the virus and all City players were tested twice before the game against Chelsea as a precaution.

However, it is not just at the Etihad that Covid-19 is once again becoming a growing problem, with Tottenham’s match in Fulham and Burnley’s meeting with Scott Parker’s team also postponed, with cases across the whole. league on the rise.

Lampard explains Chelsea’s ‘Long Covid’ problem

Frank Lampard says there are some players on his Chelsea team who are battling the coronavirus longer than others and admits that it has been “very challenging” for his medical staff.

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Lampard said Sky sports It has been a difficult period for him and for his clubmates, who are tasked with keeping the players in their best physical shape.

When asked to describe the situation, he said: “Very challenging, not just for me, but for the medical team and sports science because some players are asymptomatic and go back to training in a few days and reach their highest level, but then there are some players that take longer.

“They report tiredness and fatigue and because everything is so new, we don’t have anything to measure it. We don’t have the right methods to know how to get players back to a level as quickly as possible.”

“It’s not just us, but a problem for the league. This year is different and it will be different until we get to the other side.”

What are the criteria for a postponement?

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The Premier League Board ultimately decides whether the matches can be postponed or not. While there are no hard and fast rules, each game is judged on a case-by-case basis, there are some guidelines.

For example, in the 2020/21 Premier League manual, clubs have been told that “permission will not be granted to postpone a league match in which the applicant club has 14 or more players included in its team roster. available “.

Earlier this season, teams were allowed to name 25 players to their Premier League team roster, and that doesn’t include registered under-21 players.

Man City, for example, according to the Premier League website, named 20 players to its list of Premier League teams. Ilkay Gundogan and Eric García are currently injured, with Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus positive with coronavirus. That cuts their roster of Premier League teams down to 16, but doesn’t take into account any subsequent positive cases they may have uncovered since then.

However, City may not even have had to fall below that 14-player level to have their match with Everton postponed. The Premier League Board has said it took medical advice into consideration when deciding to suspend that match, and there may be other factors that affected its decision.

However, what we do know is that the Premier League Board only reorganizes games in “exceptional circumstances”.