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Sam Allardyce believes that a swine flu outbreak at
Stamford Bridge is likely after Blackburn Rovers’ game away to
Chelsea on Saturday went ahead despite two of his players falling
ill with the virus.
David Dunn and Christopher Samba are believed to be the pair who
missed Blackburn’s 5-0 Barclays Premier League defeat. Since then a
third, unnamed player who did take part is showing symptoms of the
H1N1 virus. So are two of Rovers’ staff, including the club
doctor.
Allardyce thinks that the virus could have been passed on to the
Chelsea squad. “There is no doubt about that,” the Blackburn
manager said. “When you look at the medical side of it, it is one
of the most infectious viruses we have had. They are not going to
stop it, are they?”
Chelsea are understood to be confident that their medical
department has taken all the necessary precautions to protect the
health of their players and staff.
Blackburn’s Carling Cup fourth-round tie against Peterborough
United at Ewood Park will go ahead tonight after the Lancashire
club confirmed that they will fulfil the fixture.
The Times has also learnt that Mikele Leigertwood, of Queens
Park Rangers, returned to action against Derby County on Saturday
after missing two matches with swine flu. It was caught early and
Leigertwood was immediately isolated from the rest of the
squad.
Allardyce criticised the Premier League for failing to take
decisive action after Blackburn warned them of the outbreak before
the game, yet admitted that the club had not asked for a
postponement. He said that such a request would have been
pointless.
“I would not have [commented] to the extent I have today, but
reading in the paper that the Premier League said we made no
request to get the game called off, that’s just sitting on the
fence — normal splinters up the backside as usual,” he said.
“They know that we went through the right procedures and that we
did not call it off because we couldn’t. There was no point
[trying] because [last season] they told us we had to get a team
out there no matter what.
“It is their responsibility to consider how dangerous it might
be to allow this to spread throughout football, so they have
shirked responsibility, not us. I don’t think they have put much
thought into it at all.”
The Premier League said that it will consider postponement
requests on a case-by-case basis. It is reluctant to call off
matches except in extreme cases, taking the view that most clubs
have squads large enough to cope with a couple of absences.
When ten Tottenham Hotspur players fell ill with a vomiting bug
before a key game against West Ham United in 2006, the League
refused Tottenham’s request to postpone it.
A spokesman said yesterday: “The Premier League does not
anticipate at this stage a situation where any game will be
postponed as a result of swine flu.
“Any postponement will have to be granted by the board of the
Premier League and clubs would have to prove they couldn’t fulfil
the fixture with the first-team squad available to them.
“The Premier League are telling clubs to seek and follow
government advice when it comes to preventing or dealing with swine
flu and take necessary precautions.”
Clubs are increasingly conscious of the threat. A spokesman for
Stoke City said: “A couple of players had flu-like symptoms but
they came through it. The players had their routine flu jabs a few
weeks ago.” Aston Villa are “monitoring the situation on a daily
basis”, while Portsmouth have installed anti-bacterial gels for
hand-washing at Fratton Park and their training ground.
Micah Richards, the Manchester City defender, is believed to
have become the first British footballer to catch the virus while
on holiday in Cyprus in July. The next month, the Russian health
ministry advised fans not to travel to their country’s World Cup
qualifying match against Wales in Cardiff because they believed
supporters would be at risk.
If the situation worsens over the winter and the Government
recommends the suspension of public gatherings such as football
matches, the sport’s authorities would have to decide whether to
postpone fixtures or order them to be played behind closed doors,
as happened in Mexico at the end of last season.
According to the NHS, there were 53,000 new cases last week,
double the number in the previous seven days. So far, 122 people
have died from the virus in the UK.
“I would not be too worried if I was a member of the Chelsea
squad,” Dr Mark Porter, The Times’s doctor, said. “While it is
theoretically possible for people to pass flu viruses on before
they develop disabling symptoms, the window is very short and I
doubt any Blackburn players would have been fit to play had they
been contagious.
“Even if they were, swine flu requires close contact to spread
easily and spending a couple of minutes in a tunnel and an hour and
a half on a pitch in the fresh air hardly constitutes close
contact. I have had families living under the same roof for days on
end where only one member has gone down with the virus.”
