Tottenham vs Fulham called off after Covid-19 outbreak within Scott Parker's squad

Posted Thursday, December 31, 2020 by Express.co.uk

Tottenham's match against Fulham in the Premier League has been called off.

Tottenham's match against Fulham in the Premier League this evening has been postponed after a coronavirus outbreak in the away team's squad. The match has been called off just under four hours before the 6pm kick-off.

Scott Parker was forced to miss Fulham's Boxing Day clash with Southampton as he had to self-isolate after a member of his household returned a positive test.

Reports of an outbreak among those at Fulham come after Manchester City's game against Everton on Monday was postponed after a number of positive tests among first-team players from Pep Guardiola's side.

There has also been talk of a two-week circuit break in the Premier League to get things back under control.

Just moments before the news broke that the match was postponed, Jose Mourinho had taken to Instagram to bemoan the slow decision making.

He posted a video of the Tottenham squad waiting at the stadium for news on Instagram.

The caption read: "Match at 6 pm... We still don’t know if we play. Best league in the world."

The Premier League have to decide whether to call games off when clubs propose there could a problem with playing a fixture.

It is not known when the match will now take place.

Meanwhile, speaking ahead of the match, Mourinho confirmed Gareth Bale had suffered yet another injury blow.

A Premier League statement read: "Fulham FC’s match at Tottenham Hotspur, due to be played at 6pm this evening, has been postponed following a Premier League Board meeting this afternoon.

"Fulham lodged a request with the Premier League Board to rearrange the fixture following a significant rise in positive COVID-19 cases, as well as a number of players showing symptoms today.

"The Premier League Board has consulted its medical advisors and the decision to postpone the game has been taken as a precaution and with the health of players and staff as the priority. The group will now be retested immediately.

"With low numbers of positive tests across the overwhelming majority of clubs, the Premier League continues to have full confidence in its COVID-19 protocols and being able to continue to play our fixtures as scheduled.

"The League wishes those with COVID-19 a safe and speedy recovery and will rearrange the postponed fixture between Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham in due course."

"No, I don't expect Gareth to be fit,” he said.

"I wouldn't say it's a serious injury, but I would say a few weeks."

Mourinho was full of praise for midfielder Tanguy Ndombele, who has kicked on after struggling last term.

"There are players that naturally they have different qualities than others,” he said.

Tottenham vs Fulham called off after Covid-19 outbreak within Scott Parker's squad
Tottenham vs Fulham has been called off in the Premier League (Image: GETTY)

"Some players are very physical, some are very intense. Others are more explosive but they don't last for 90 minutes. Or they have difficulties lasting 90 minutes.

"In his case, he's adapting to a league that is not new, new, new for him but let's forget last season where he didn't play much and he had lots of injuries.

"And this season I believe to play at this intensity and to give the team what it needs with and without the ball, it's not easy for him to last 90 minutes.”

Mourinho also expects a tough difficult test against Fulham and added: “It's always tough.

"Independent of results, it's always tough and of course Fulham now, they're playing in a different way, they forgot some of the principles they believed in.

"They have new principles of play, they are getting very positive results and it's going of course to be difficult.”