Leicester City v Newcastle United: Covid outbreak could force Foxes to pull out of Magpies clash

Newcastle United’s scheduled trip to the King Power Stadium on Sunday could be in doubt after seven first team Leicester City players tested positive for Covid-19.

Three Leicester City coaching staff have also tested positive for Covid.

Leicester City are due to take on Napoli in the Europa League at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Thursday evening. However should more players test positive for coronavirus between now and Sunday it is hard to see how the Newcastle United fixture could proceed.

"We've had a number of people, staff and players, who haven't travelled," said Leicester City boss, Brendan Rodgers.

"We've had some positive cases, some are generally not well, so we haven't taken the risk.”

“The players who were unwell who we could have maybe given 24 hours to feel better, we couldn’t take any risk with those, so we’ve kept them at home along with the other guys who were deemed positive,” Rodgers added.

At the time of publication there were no confirmed cases of Covid-19 at Newcastle United.

Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur was forced to cancel Thursday evening’s Europa League clash with Rennes after eight players and five coaching staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Spurs had initially unilaterally cancelled the game but Uefa officially confirmed the decision to postpone the game on Thursday morning.

The Covid outbreak casts doubt on whether Antonio Conte’s Spurs will be able to travel to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.