Millwall boss hopes Christmas schedule will take place as Preston game KO’d by Covid-19 outbreak

Gary Rowett is hoping that Millwall will be able to fulfil their Christmas fixtures after a Covid-19 outbreak forced the postponement of tomorrow’s match against Preston.

The Lions reported they had a “significant number” of positive cases earlier in the week to Public Health England and the EFL.
First-team and academy players have been infected along with support staff.

Millwall are due to next be in action at Swansea on Boxing Day.

The Premier League has agreed new measures after a record 42 positive tests on Monday with players taking a lateral flow test every day.

Crystal Palace’s match at Watford on Saturday is off. The Hornets had already postponed Wednesday’s trip to Burnley.

Lions boss Rowett, who is double-jabbed, said: “It seems a lot of the London clubs have been affected quite early – Tottenham, QPR, Arsenal, I heard Mikel Arteta talking about cases, and obviously ourselves.

“If I was a betting man then I’d put my money on a few more games possibly being off by the weekend.

“You have to make the right decision for everybody.
“You have to think on the fly a bit. I was sat watching Preston all of Tuesday, preparing for the game, and then within a few hours it is pointless.”

“Now you are planning for four or five days out of the training ground.”

Rowett caught Covid in October 2020 and the rest of his coaching staff were also forced to self-isolate.

It led to Alex Pearce and Shaun Williams taking temporary charge for Championship matches against Preston and Huddersfield Town.

“I hope the fixtures are not too disrupted and we prepare as though we’re playing Boxing Day,” said Rowett. “Our intention will be to get to that point safely.

“A couple of the lads have been struck down quite heavily but most of the players have pretty mild symptoms.

“After the last game, and off the back of the last couple of home performances, we wanted to keep going and playing – get that last performance [a 2-1 loss at Peterborough] out of our minds.

“But you could see pretty clearly during the week what was happening, because we have been here before and seen how fast it spreads. I’m disappointed because it throws up all sorts of issues. When’s the next time you can train? What do we do with the ones that are able to do something away from the ground?

“It is a bit of a nightmare in terms of the logistics – what people can and can’t do and when they are back or not back.

“The safety of the players is key. We’ve seen players have suffered through Covid and long Covid.

“We don’t know much about it still, in terms of high-level performance.”