Leicester will be without seven players for Thursdayβs decisive Europa League trip to Napoli due to coronavirus cases or illness, manager Brendan Rodgers revealed on Wednesday.
Extra measures to curb rates of Covid-19 infections in England, including the introduction of vaccine passports for the first time, were announced by the British government on Wednesday due to fears over a surge in cases of the Omicron variant.
A Covid outbreak has left Tottenham without eight players and five members of staff for their Europa Conference League tie with Rennes.
βWeβve had some positive cases, some are generally not well, so we havenβt taken the risk,β said Rodgers.
βWe will have seven unavailable, something youβll see in time. Youβll see in the training tonight the ones who havenβt travelled. Itβs been last few days really. In general, youβre starting to see a few more cases and, for us, itβs always about the health of our players.
βTravelling to a foreign country, we have to respect travelling into Italy. We still have a strong squad here, but unfortunately itβs not a fully fit squad.β
Leicester top a fiercely competitive group heading into the final matchday with all four sides still having progress to the knockout stages in their own hands.
Read Also
Koulibaly suffers hamstring tear in Napoli injury crisis
Serie A: Inter Milan pile pressure on Napoli with Spezia win
Spartak beat Napoli to take top spot in Europa League group
The Foxes lead Spartak Moscow and Napoli by one point with Legia Warsaw, who host Spartak, one point further behind.
Rodgers said Leicester could have waited a further 24 hours to check the status of the ill players who are yet to test positive, but have decided against doing so as a precaution.
βWeβve taken every single measure, in terms of arriving here in the safest possible way to our host country, we have to respect the laws and health issues here,β added the Northern Irishman.
βWeβve taken every measure to make sure everyone was tested.
βThe players who were unwell who we couldβve have maybe given 24 hours to feel better, we couldnβt take any risk with those, so weβve kept them at home along with the other guys who were deemed positive.β
The Premier League on Monday reported 12 new positive coronavirus tests out of 3,154 tests among players and club staff. That was the highest figure of positive cases since late August.