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Eric Garcia has become the latest Manchester City player to be ruled out for a positive coronavirus test.
Pep Guardiola’s team is short of five players for Sunday’s Premier League game at Chelsea, live on Sky Sports, while an anonymous City backroom staff member tested positive alongside Garcia on Sunday.
On Christmas Day, City confirmed that defender Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus had contracted the virus and launched an internal investigation after Benjamin Mendy appeared to violate Covid-19 rules by hosting a New Years Eve party.
City said in a statement before Sunday’s game at Stamford Bridge: “Manchester City FC can confirm that Eric Garcia and a member of staff tested positive for COVID-19.
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Pep Guardiola says Manchester City have five players unavailable for Sunday’s Premier League game against Chelsea
“Both staff members will now observe a period of self-isolation in accordance with the quarantine protocol of the Premier League and the UK government.”
“Everyone at the Club wishes our teammates a speedy recovery before they return to work, training and competition.”
The Premier League confirmed 18 positive tests for coronavirus among players and staff in its latest round of testing, the highest number of the season so far.
Covid-19 appears to be having a growing impact once again with several recent games canceled, including City’s trip to Everton, Spurs’ game in Fulham, and Burnley’s game against Scott Parker’s team postponed due to concerns about the spread of the virus.
Sunday January 3 4:15 pm
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Man City will investigate the breach of the Mendy Covid-19 rule
The city will launch an internal investigation after Mendy appeared to break 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.
Benjamin Mendy’s violation of Covid-19 rules left Man City ‘disappointed’
“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.”
What are the criteria for a postponement?
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.
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The Premier League has responded to scrutiny on the match postponement process
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. They currently have Ilkay Gundogan injured and Eric García, Walker and Jesús positive for coronavirus. That reduces their list of Premier League teams to 16, but does not take into account the other two unnamed positive cases.
However, City may not even have had to drop below that 14-player level to have their recent game 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”.
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