Leicester City’s game against Tottenham Hotspur at home on Thursday has been postponed because of a COVID outbreak at the Midlands club. It’s the fourth Premier League match to be cancelled in the last week, and it comes on the same day that Brentford manager Thomas Frank declared no top-flight games should be played this weekend.

“We think we should postpone the full round of Premier League games this weekend,” he said. “COVID cases are going through the roof at all Premier League clubs; everyone is dealing with it and having problems.

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“To postpone this round and also the Carabao Cup round [next Tuesday and Wednesday] would give everyone a week at least, or four or five days to clean and do everything at the training ground so everything is clean and you break the chain.”

The league had previously rejected Leicester and Tottenham’s requests to have their match called off, but has now conceded that it will not be played. Brendan Rodgers of Leicester City and Antonio Conte of Tottenham Hotspur both expressed displeasure with the earlier decision to force their clubs to play, despite the fact that Tottenham had hoped to reschedule their Europa League fixture against Rennes for Thursday night.

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Spurs were notified of the postponement about 1 p.m. There was a strong desire to make the decision early in the day to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s predicament, when Burnley’s home game against Watford was called off just as visiting fans had arrived or were on their way to Burnley. Conte and his team had already arrived in the East Midlands, but they recognise that these are issues beyond their control.

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Spurs have already had one Premier League match postponed due to COVID — against Brighton. As the country battles with the Omicron variety, Brentford’s match against Manchester United was put off on Tuesday, while Burnley’s game was the third Premier League match to be postponed.

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As they prepare for Saturday’s trip to Southampton and a Carabao Cup fixture against Chelsea on Wednesday, Brentford have their own COVID cases to deal with.

“We fully respect that we want to play and it is important football keeps going, and this way we can make sure Boxing Day keeps going, I’m 100% sure of that,” he said. “This Omicron variant is running like wildfire around the world and I think we need to do all we can to protect and avoid it. I think we can do a lot by closing down training grounds for three, four or five days, and then we can go again.”