The Premier League returns to action after the international break on Saturday. Whereas this might be cause to worry about who has picked up a knock playing for their national team or who’s got a late, long-haul flight back to the UK ahead of the game, this time around it also means checking out which players are heading into a period of quarantine upon their return.
Changes to the UK Government’s red list during the international break has eased the concerns of some Premier League managers. With 47 countries, including Argentina, Mexico and Senegal, removed from the list a raft of players who jetted off on to link up with their national teams expecting to spend 10 days in isolation upon their return to the UK may now be available for their club sides this weekend.
Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, Tottenham Hotspur pair Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso, and Manchester United forward Edinson Cavani are among those who will no longer be expected to quarantine in a hotel when they land on British soil.
But as it stands, travel from the seven countries remaining on the red list – Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela – will still have a big impact on Premier League teamsheets this weekend.
Colombia internationals Yerry Mina, of Everton, and Davison Sanchez, of Spurs, are effected. But with Brazil having played a World Cup qualifier in Barranquilla on 10 October, the Premier League’s Brazilian contingent will also be affected.
That means that Manchester City’s Ederson and Gabriel Jesus, Liverpool’s Allison Becker and Fabinho, Tottenham’s Emerson Royal, Chelsea’s Thiago Silva, Manchester United’s Fred, Leeds United’s Raphinha and Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz are all in line to miss two or three of their clubs’ upcoming matches.
For title rivals Liverpool and City, being without their first-choice goalkeepers going into the next few fixtures represents a challenge that both Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola would probably rather have avoided.
It all goes to show the effect that Covid-19 is continuing to have on professional sport around the world.
Study the online cricket betting tips and you will see that Australia are currently big favourites to win this winter’s Ashes series with odds of around 1/4. An England series win is available at far more generous odds of around 9/2.
Yes, the Aussies currently sit one place above England in the ICC’s Test rankings and have home advantage, but their odds are so short as to indicate that touring amid the lingering pandemic could be a decisive factor. Certainly a long trip to a foreign country punctuated by periods of quarantine and even longer periods in a bubble and away from friends and family has the possibility of undermining sporting performance. Certainly that seems to be the bookies’ assessment of the situation.
That sort of extended period of touring is not something footballers have to do very often. FIFA and national team managers will hope that the situation is much easier to manage by the time the World Cup in Qatar rolls around at the end of next year.
