West Ham United have become the third Premier League club to shutdown their training ground due to the invasion of Covid-19. Recall that Newcastle United had to close their training ground earlier in December and Manchester City followed suit weeks after.
Also, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the Premier League to postpone the Aston Villa game against Newcastle, the Manchester City game against Everton, and less than a day ago, the Tottenham match against Fulham had to be postponed.
Recently, West Ham United’s defender Ryan Fredericks tested positive for Covid-19 which forced him to miss the club’s league game against Everton on new year’s day. Even though Fredericks did not play the game, West Ham stunned Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park.
After the game, West Ham United’s coach David Moyes confirmed that the club’s training ground, Rush Green, has been shut down for deep cleaning after a couple of coronavirus infections have been reported in the club.
Recall that David Moyes and two other West Ham United players, Issa Diop and Josh Cullen tested positive for Covid-19 earlier in the season. They had to self-isolate for about 10-days due to the virus.
The closure of the club’s training ground coincident with the four days off the coach gave to the entire squad after their famous victory over Everton on Friday.
West Ham which had to play three league games in 6 days would not have any competitive match until January 11 when they will visit a championship side, Stockport for an FA Cup third-round game.
“We are going to make sure we give the players four days off now so they can have some time”, David Moyes said.
“We also want to make sure we shut the training ground down for a few days to make sure – because we know Covid is very bad at the moment – that we give it a bit of time.”
The perfect way to kick start the New Year! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/GzMIsN2OlY
— West Ham United (@WestHam) January 2, 2021
Before West Ham United’s 1-0 win over Everton, David Moyes had wondered whether the Premier League has changed its rules guiding the postponement of games due to COVID-19.
He argued that when he and two West Ham players had the virus, the league did not postpone the club’s games but was fast to postpone other clubs’ games when they reported coronavirus cases.
The Premier League rule guiding the postponement of league games because of Covid-19 states that a club’s game can only be postponed if the club doesn’t have up to 14 fit players.
The coach and his boys are currently sitting on the 10th spot on the league table with 26 points in 17 league games. Moyes’ squad has recorded 7 wins, 5 draws, and 5 defeats this season.
