Sunderland AFC v Hull City - Grant McCann expects to see more EFL fixtures rearranged at short notice

The Tigers were due to tackle Wigan Athletic this weekend, but Saturday's League One clash was postponed due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the Latics' camp.

That left Hull, who saw two games called off last month because of coronavirus issues, facing another blank weekend until they came to an arrangement with Sunderland to travel to Wearside for a 7.45pm kick-off.

City were originally due to visit the Stadium of Light on Boxing Day, only for a number of positive Covid test results to force the Black Cats into postponing the match.

Asked if he can foresee more games being re-arranged in such fashion moving forwards, McCann replied: "I think so. With the weekly testing it's difficult because you could be good on a Monday, for example, players could test positive on a Monday afternoon then all of a sudden your plans change.

"So, you've got to be open to the idea of changing your opponent very quickly at short notice, and I think the EFL are open to it.

"As long as everybody buys into it and tries to get the games in as much as they can, then I can't see any reason why the games can't be fulfilled. If they have to extend the season by a month, then so be it, but I think it is important that we finish the season."

This week has seen the EFL opt to introduce twice-weekly testing throughout the Championship, League One and League Two.

The governing body made its move following "discussions with medical advisers and public health officials" in response to the spate of match postponements that have affected fixtures across all three of their divisions in recent weeks.

In total, 52 games have been called off for reasons related to Covid-19 thus far in 2020/21 - six in the Championship, 34 in League One and 12 in League Two.

Up until this point, EFL clubs have only been required to test en masse before the first game of the season, once players returned from international duty and as and when individuals within their bubble displayed symptoms.

The EFL has been relying on medical guidance which advised that following protocols in training and on match-days would be enough to protect players and staff from the risk of infection.

However with a new, more infectious variant of Covid-19 wreaking havoc, it has now been decided that an intervention is required to try and bring a worsening situation under control.

On whether he expected that bi-weekly testing will result in more games being postponed, McCann said: "It depends which way the rules are going to go. It's very difficult to digest sometimes when you see some games being called off and some going ahead with positive testing.

"I know that every case is different. It's a conundrum at times. Is the team that you've picked 20 minutes ago going to be the team that you feel is going to start the game in the next day or two? You just don't know, but you've got to be ready to adjust

"They're testing twice a week, we are hearing it's going to be rapid testing so we could probably get our results back in the space of 30 minutes, which makes it a little bit easier in terms of preparation."