Two Boxing Day games fall victim to COVID-19 in Premier League

LONDON - The scheduled Premier League games between Leeds United and Liverpool and Wolves against Watford have been postponed from the Boxing Day (December 26th) fixture list after outbreaks of COVID-19 in the Leeds and Watford.

Both squads confirmed that it's impossible for them to each call on 13 first team players due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The decision came after a meeting on Monday to continue with the Christmas fixture schedule after six matches last weekend had to be postponed due to COVID-19.

Leeds have had to close their training ground, but celebrated that all of the cases detected were "asymptomatic", which they said was "due to our high vaccination rate".

Watford commented that they "fully expected" the home game against West Ham to go ahead on December 28th.

The postponements came amidst an increasingly bitter debate between players and coaches and Premier League organizers over the traditional fixtures on December 28th, which are followed by game on New Year's Day.

Players and coaches argue that playing on the 26th, 28th or 29th of December and January 1st, increases the risk of injury and lowers the quality of football on offer, while the League points out these are the most popular dates in the calendar for fans to visit grounds.