Saints game against Shrewsbury Town in the 3rd round of the FA Cup has been postponed, read of for the official press release from the club and what is going to happen next
Southampton Football Club has released the following statement;
The club received notice of the decision from the Football Association this morning, after a number of Shrewsbury players and staff members tested positive for Covid-19.
A meeting of The FA’s Professional Game Board will take place early next week to make a decision as to what will happen with the fixture, and we will update supporters as soon as we have any further information.
The club would also like to send its best wishes to the players and staff affected at Shrewsbury, and we wish them all a speedy recovery.
The Ugly Inside understands that there has been no final decision made on any club who are unable to fulfil a fixture and that there is still a chance that this game could go ahead next week, but there is a good chance that Saints and other clubs affected will be awarded a bye due to the lack of any gap in the fixture lists to be able to fit in a rescheduled game.
With mid week games in the Premier League being virtually the norm till the start of February and also European fixtures for some clubs there is just no space in the schedule to be able to fit in any game postponed due to Covid.
If this game is not slotted into next week, then it is hard to see when it can be played given that Saints have midweek Premier League games in every week after up to the week starting Monday 8th Feb.