Full scale of Aston Villa’s Covid-19 outbreak revealed as TEN first-team players test positive

Aston Villa chief executive has revealed 10 first team players tested positive for Covid-19 on the eve of their FA Cup tie against Liverpool, leaving them no chance but to use Under-23 and Under-18 players to fulfil the fixture. 

The clash had been thrown into serious doubt after the club’s entire first team squad – including manager Dean Smith and his staff – were forced into isolation on Thursday after a ‘large number’ of cases were reported. 

Purslow appeared on Sky Sports News on Friday in which he explained the sharp rise in cases.

 Ten players within Aston Villa’s first-team bubble tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday

Villa CEO Christian Purslow revealed the full scale of the team’s outbreak on Friday morning

‘We went from 0 positive tests for Covid to 14 yesterday morning within our first team,’ Purslow told Sky Sports News. ‘Ten of the 14 positive tests are for players.’ 

When quizzed on how the double-figure outbreak will affect upcoming league games against Tottenham, on January 13, and Everton, on January 16, he said it was too soon to tell if they will be postponed.  

Each member of the hastily assembled squad, which will be led by Under 23s boss  Mark Delaney at Villa Park, was tested for the virus on Thursday, with results fast-tracked on Friday morning. 

Villa closed their training ground after a significant Covid outbreak at the club on Thursday

Aston Villa confirmed the game will be going ahead on Friday night via their Twitter account

And the match, due to be televised on BT Sport, has now been given the green light following those results, which all came back negative, with Villa confirming the news on Twitter on Friday morning. 

He added: ‘It’s an absolute dream for our young players to have the opportunity to play Liverpool.’ 

By playing the tie rather than pushing for a postponement, Villa are compromising their chances of progress. But the FA had made clear early on that any club who could muster 14 players would be expected to play their game or forfeit the tie — and there is little space left in the calendar to rearrange matches.

More to follow.  

Aston Villa will be able to field a team made up of youth players for their FA Cup tie on Friday