Premier League and British football set for shutdown due to coronavirus – live!

The EFL have confirmed they are also meeting this morning “to make a decision on this weekend’s fixtures and beyond”. It seems inevitable that football will shutdown on these shores, belatedly following in the footsteps of many European leagues. There will be no action in La Liga for “at least the next two rounds of matches” as a result of the quarantine of the Real Madrid squad, while the Netherlands’ top two leagues have also been suspended for the same period.

Callum Hudson-Odoi says he is feeling fine and has recovered from coronavirus, but is self isolating, as per government advice. “As you may be aware I had the virus for the last couple of days, which I’ve recovered from. I’m following the health guidelines and self-isolating myself from everybody for the week. I hope to see everybody soon and hopefully be back on the pitch very soon.”

It probably shouldn’t have taken a top-flight manager to contract coronavirus to prompt action, but that seems to be where we are at, with an emergency meeting planned between Premier League powers on Friday morning to determine the next step after news of Mikel Arteta’s positive result. A few hours ago, Chelsea also announced their players are self-isolating after Callum Hudson-Odoi returned a positive test for the virus, while three Leicester players have also undergone tests for Covid-19 after experiencing symptoms. The outcome of that meeting, and the subsequent domino effect across the Football League and beyond, will inevitably dominate the discourse, but we will keep an eye on everything else too, though the football itself is trivial.