Fulham vs Burnley postponed over further COVID-19 cases

Fulham's trip to Turf Moor to face Burnley on Sunday has been postponed after the Cottagers were hit by further positive cases of COVID-19.

Scott Parker saw his side's meeting with Tottenham Hotspur on 30 December postponed because of an initial spike in cases at the club, but the hope was that Fulham would be able to isolate the virus and get back to normality soon enough.

However, as revealed by The Athletic's Peter Rutzler and David Ornstein prior to the Premier League's official confirmation, more cases of the virus have been detected in later rounds of testing at Fulham's Motspur Park training complex, and now the decision has been made to postpone the Burnley game.

Fulham had planned to train on Saturday morning but sent out an urgent message to players instructing them to stay at home instead.

The club have also opened an investigation into a video which appeared to show striker Aleksandar Mitrovic mixing with Crystal Palace midfielder Luka Milivojevic on New Year's Eve.

The pair were filmed celebrating the turn of the year by Mitrovic's partner, who has since deleted her Instagram account.

Parker himself was forced to miss the club's Boxing Day draw with Southampton after a member of his household tested positive for the virus, and the disruption of Craven Cottage shows no signs of slowing down just yet.

Premier League clubs have now returned to twice-weekly tests in an attempt to try and remain on top of the growing number of cases. The final round of weekly testing, between 21 and 27 December, found 18 positive cases - the highest number since weekly tests were introduced.

"The Premier League has not discussed pausing the season and has no plans to do so," league officials said in a statement.

“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.”

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