Gary Neville has called for the Premier League to stop postponing fixtures after the number of positive Covid-19 tests once again dropped.
The former Manchester United captain has been critical of clubs requesting postponements over the past few weeks, in particular after Arsenal had their game against Tottenham called off despite allowing a number of players to head out on loan.
The latest weekly figures showed there were 33 new positive cases from 13,625 taken by players and staff in the league – the lowest weekly number since December 5.
The Premier League also revealed there were only three new positive cases between Friday, January 14 and Sunday, January 16.
It is the third successive week in which the number of positive tests has dropped following the sharp rise over the festive period, which saw a raft of fixtures called off.
Reacting to the news, Neville tweeted: “33 players and staff test positive for Covid out of 13,600 tests. We don’t know the exact breakdown between players and staff but it’s clear that now we must stop calling fixtures off. Jan 1st should have been the last date allowed for cancellations. Come on @premierleague @EFL.”
Neville’s latest comments double down on the thoughts he expressed last week, after it emerged Arsenal had applied to have their game against Spurs postponed.
"If it was purely down to Covid where they were [sic] 10-15 players out, but we're talking about teams with no doubt they've been calling games off because they haven't got the best squad to win the game, it's got to stop,” Neville said.
"I have to say that's not a dig at Arsenal, I should've spoken three or four weeks ago; Manchester United, other teams have got 30-40 players in their squad, I'm not having they can't get 14, 15, 16 players together.”
Despite that, more fixtures could be called off this week, with Burnley requesting for their clash with Watford on Tuesday to be postponed due to a high number of injuries and Covid cases in their squad.
The fixture has already had to be rescheduled, having originally been due to be played in December before an outbreak at Watford.
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