Carry on playing, is Chris Wilder’s message to Premier League

Over 30 matches in the top flight and Football League have been postponed this month due to rises in Covid-19 cases amid spiralling rates in England and Wales.

Fulham’s home match against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday was the latest Premier League fixture to be called off after a number of positive tests at the Craven Cottage outfit.

It comes after the Premier League announced a record number of 18 positive tests among 1,479 players and staff in their latest testing results, including several at the Blades, who confirmed that the club had “a number of positive coronavirus tests” ahead of Tuesday’s game at Burnley.

Wilder later confirmed that a couple of unnamed players and five or six backroom staff missed the game after falling ill.

The fact that one player – who has been in contact with a number of others at the club – tested negative in the morning effectively ensured that the game could take place.

The significant rises nationwide prompted West Brom manager Sam Allardyce – speaking after his side’s defeat to Leeds United – to call for a short two-week ‘circuit breaker’ in football.

The situation in the EFL has seen coronavirus outbreaks at several clubs – including Doncaster Rovers and Hull City – with seven of Tuesday’s 12 scheduled League One games called off.

Rotherham United also saw two recent fixtures postponed after players contracted the virus.

But the governing body and Premier League are playing down fears that the season may have to be put on hold for the second time in almost 10 months.

A Premier League statement read: “The Premier League has not discussed pausing the season and has no plans to do so.

“The League continues to have confidence in its Covid-19 protocols to enable fixtures to be played as scheduled, and these protocols continue to have the full backing of Government.

“With the health of players and staff the priority, the League is also fully supportive of how clubs are implementing the protocols and rules.”

Wilder’s side may have equalled the worst-ever start to a season in the top four divisions in their 1-0 loss, but the Blades’ chief is keen for football to continue and is certainly not about to look for an ‘exit’ and he is adamant the season must be decided on the pitch and not elsewhere.

He said: “I know the Premier League are doing their best and we are doing our best as a football club to keep going.

“No-one is looking for an exit or the season to be canned. It is quite an easy one to chuck at us where we might be, but we are not. We are in this position because we have not done enough from a football point of view.

“All the numbers are suggesting that it is at its peak or getting worse.

“People will get affected and football will be affected and it is taking its toll on the EFL.

“But I know the Premier League is doing its best as we are as a football club and the individual clubs in the Premier League are doing by getting tested twice a week to get themselves out.”

Clarifying the situation at his own club, Wilder revealed: “The Premier League know about all positive tests straight away.

“We have a situation with staff and knew we possibly had a situation (on Tuesday morning.) One of the players had to get tested because he was showing signs and in contact with two or three of the players. That would have wiped the team out (if test was positive), but it was not.

“We lost a couple of players and half a dozen staff as well. It has been very good previously and I don’t think it is the fault of the process that our football club has been going through.

“We have been very honest and stringent with what we have had to do.

“Sometimes, it (rates) goes over the top and there is nothing you can really do about it.”

United’s 1-0 loss at Burnley represented the 11th time this season that Wilder’s side have lost by a single-goal margin.

Their latest defeat achieved several unwanted ‘milestones’ as they became the first club in 118 years to not win a league game in a season before New Year’s Day, with the Bramall Lane outfit being the only side not to triumph in the league this campaign since it began in September.

The Blades’ plight may look increasingly bereft, with relegation increasingly seen as inevitable by many observers, but the bottom-placed club side remain together, focused and defiant.

A fighter by nature and someone who has sampled far worse situations in football – having experienced major off-the-field adversity at the likes of FC Halifax Town, Northampton Town and Oxford United – Wilder says that throwing in the towel, despite his side being 11 points behind fourth-from-bottom Brighton is not in his make-up.

It is not in his players’ either. Losing may have become a habit, but they are not losing by many.

He added: “It is competition, football and sport.

“We have to go right to the end and we will do, regardless of our position, points tally and whenever something happens or doesn’t happen.”

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