Town’s Saturday game at Fleetwood could move to next Tuesday evening with confirmation of its scheduling anticipated on Wednesday.
The Blues’ matches at home to Northampton on Boxing Day and at AFC Wimbledon this evening were postponed after 11 positive Covid-19 tests at Town last week, eight of them first-team players, while two more members of the squad have been self-isolating as they live with people who have tested positive and another reported symptoms but tested negative.
Playford Road was subsequently closed and given a deep clean with the unaffected squad members training individually over Christmas.
All the players who tested positive are now understood to be fine but manager Paul Lambert and general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill are both still feeling the effects.
Five of the players are due back at training following their 10-day periods of self-isolation on Wednesday - another player could return on Thursday having tested positive later and two more on Saturday - having already undergone a medical assessment today and will be monitored by physio Matt Byard during tomorrow’s session.
If the quintet aren’t considered ready for a game on Saturday, Town could potentially have up to 13 players unavailable due to injury and Covid - one injured player has also tested positive - hence Tuesday being looked at as an alternative to allow them more time to get up to speed.
On the other hand, moving the match to Tuesday would mean the squad arriving back in Suffolk in the early hours of Wednesday and having less time to recover for the Saturday 9th January match at home to Swindon and it may be decided it would be better to make the trip to Fleetwood as planned on Saturday despite what could be a very depleted squad.
It had initially been expected that the game would be put back to later in the season but the EFL is keen to get matches played and there are concerns that action such as fines or even points deductions could be handed out retrospectively if games are postponed and it’s later deemed that they could have been played.
A decision is expected to be made tomorrow following training with news likely later in the day or perhaps Thursday.
No further Covid-19 tests are due to take place at Town until players from all EFL clubs are tested on Monday.
League One has been particularly affected by positive tests over the last couple of weeks with the Blues’ fixture at Peterborough having been postponed due to a Posh player contracting the virus prior to Town’s own Covid cases.
This evening’s fixture list in the division has been badly hit with only five of the scheduled 12 matches taking place. The Blues will remain seventh in the table regardless of tonight's results.
Meanwhile, academy central defender Elkan Baggott has been unable to join up with the Indonesia U19s squad currently holding a training camp in Spain.
Flights from the UK to Spain are currently suspended until January 5th. The Indonesian FA are reportedly hoping that the 18-year-old and other similarly absent players will eventually be able to make the trip.
Elsewhere, ex-Town left-back Neil Thompson, 57, has been named caretaker-manager of Sheffield Wednesday following the sacking of Tony Pulis after only 45 days.
Former Blues manager Paul Hurst is at this evening's Grimsby-Oldham match and is set to return to his old job as Mariners' boss. Hurst, 46, was previously in charge at Blundell Park between March 2011 and October 2016.