The list of players known to have ignored coronavirus protocols continues to grow, with Man City, Crystal Palace, and Fulham players under the microscope.
Benjamin Mendy, Luka Milivojevic, and Aleksandar Mitrovic are in hot water, even more so considering the COVID-19 troubles at their respective clubs.
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Man City is without five players including Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus for Sunday’s match against Chelsea and its last match versus Everton was postponed.
Fulham’s Sunday match with Burnley is also postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests, while the club waits for word on whether Wednesday’s match with Tottenham Hotspur can go ahead. In a sad coincidence, Spurs’ had a trio of players break COVID-19 protocols Sergio Reguilon, Erik Lamela, and Giovani Lo Celso join West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini at a party.
City is conducting an internal investigation and says it is disappointed that Benjamin Mendy hosted a holiday party, though the club say it believes “elements of this incident have been misinterpreted in the reports, and that the player has publicly apologized for his error.”
Milivojevic and Mitrovic are in hot water after photographs on the latter’s partner’s social media account appear to show the players at a New Year’s Eve party.
Palace boss Roy Hodgson discussed Milivojevic’s role after Palace beat Sheffield United 2-0 on Sunday, with the midfielder playing 90 minutes.
From Football.London:“It was a question of him inviting or having his fellow Serb Mitrovic to come round and join him. So that’s a clear breach of coronavirus rules. We condemn it, and certainly apologise for it and we’re certain Luka will as well, but as far as I’m concerned he must take responsibility for that, it’s an internal matter that we will deal with. There is literally nothing positive that I can say on the matter.
“Neither he nor Mitrovic had in any way tested [positive] so neither players were if you like so in that respect we weren’t concerned about breaching any Premier League protocols and therefore it was quite correct I think that Luka played the game.”