LONDON – Manchester United moved into the League Cup fourth round with a 3-0 win at Luton, while West Ham boss David Moyes and two of his players contracted the coronavirus ahead of their 5-1 victory against Hull as the pandemic caused chaos on Tuesday.
Moyes, Josh Cullen and Issa Diop all left the London Stadium after learning of the tests before kick-off and will self-isolate, with the trio said to be asymptomatic.
West Ham was not the only Premier League club affected by the virus as Tottenham’s tie at Leyton Orient was postponed after their fourth-tier opponents suffered a Covid-19 outbreak.
West Ham’s match went ahead as planned despite the virus tests, with assistant manager Alan Irvine taking charge of the Hammers.
“At 20 past six we suddenly got some information from our doctor and head physio to say there were three positive tests, the manager and the two players,” Irvine said.
“We’d had contact insofar as we were in the same area of the stadium as David.”
“We were shocked by the news. We’ve had so many tests and not had any positive. But we’ve been very particular about protocol right from the start.”
West Ham will play Fleetwood or Everton in the last 16.
The news of the virus striking at football’s heart came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dealt a major blow to the sport’s financial future on Tuesday.
Johnson said fans would not be allowed back into stadiums in October as originally planned due to a spike in virus cases, measures that will remain in place for “perhaps six months”.
-‘Bad for football’-
Tottenham’s clash with Orient has yet to be rearranged amid reports Jose Mourinho’s men could be given a bye into the last 16, where they would face Chelsea or Barnsley.
Orient revealed the positive cases on Monday after Tottenham paid for their opponents’ testing, but the match was not called off until two hours before kick-off.
“If I was doing this again I would not do the testing - this is an incentive not to test and that is bad for football and bad for health and safety,” Orient chairman Nigel Travis told the BBC. – AFP, September 23, 2020
