Town’s Saturday pre-season friendly was shelved due to a member of the academy staff at West Ham United, whose development squad were set to be the Blues’ opponents, testing positive for Covid-19.

As revealed earlier, Town were scheduled to play their opening friendly of pre-season at the weekend but the match was called off this afternoon.

West Ham’s U23s were due to be the opponents with the fixture set to be played behind closed doors at their training ground.

"We can confirm that a member of our backroom staff within the academy has tested positive for Covid-19,” the Hammers said in a statement to The Sun.

"The individual, whose identity will remain private due to medical confidentiality, is asymptomatic and currently self-isolating in line with guidance.”

Town have subsequently arranged an in-house game for Saturday with their first friendly proper now the double header at Colchester on Tuesday evening.

The Blues were initially set to face Southend United away in Saturday's game but the Shrimpers withdrew from the fixture as they felt the match came too soon in their pre-season preparations.

Photo: TWTD

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