Manchester City will undergo THREE additional rounds of coronavirus testing
Manchester City are undergoing three rounds of additional coronavirus testing in the hope of avoiding a second Premier League postponement in under a week.
Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus were already self-isolating before three further unnamed players returned positive tests in the hours before Monday’s match at Everton.
Pep Guardiola’s squad underwent the first of three tests in the City Football Academy’s car park on Tuesday and are expected to discover how widely the virus has spread through the club on Wednesday.
Man City are undergoing three rounds of extra coronavirus testing amid an outbreak
City’s game with Everton on Monday was postponed owing to several positive cases
The full extent of that will become clearer after a robust schedule of four tests in seven days. Sportsmail understands City have ramped up their PCR testing as a consequence of the week’s developments and are scheduled to hold two further rounds before Sunday’s planned trip to Chelsea.
The game at Stamford Bridge remains in severe doubt. Having to rearrange another league game would represent a logistical nightmare over the coming weeks – with City already two games behind some top-flight teams.
Tuesday’s results will serve as a real indicator of the degree to which coronavirus has spread through the club’s bubble. Newcastle, who are still grappling with the after-effects of the virus hitting their squad, only found out the true impact after three lots of tests.
Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus tested positive and three others have contracted the virus
The additional tests will give an indication on the extent to which the virus has spread
Like Guardiola, Steve Bruce’s side initially had two players who contracted the virus but those figures subsequently soared well into double figures after the same re-testing process that City have embarked on.
City sources fear the mutant variant their players are believed to have contracted in London last week is more virulent than the strain at Newcastle.
Their training base, which has undergone a deep clean, will remain closed if any positives are forthcoming on Wednesday.
Sunday’s trip to Chelsea remains severely doubtful as a result of the recent outbreak at City
Bruce made clear the fatigue issues his squad has endured after a Covid outbreak, with Allan Saint-Maximin still ‘weeks away’ from playing. Defender Fabian Schar – who starred for the first time in a month during defeat at City on Saturday – revealed the extent of the issues facing players.
‘For 10 days, I was feeling quite bad. I was in bed doing nothing and I felt very weak,’ Schar said.
‘I needed some time to get over it and I didn’t expect to be on the pitch like I was on Boxing Day but I felt quite good to play.
‘I had one training session with the team and I spoke to the gaffer and he asked me and I said I just wanted to play again as soon as possible.’
