West Ham vs Norwich fixture in doubt amid Covid cases and injury issues at Carrow Road

West Ham are due to face Norwich at the London Stadium on Saturday
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Jack Rosser @JackRosser_15 December 2021

Dean Smith has said he “doesn’t know” if Norwich will have enough players to face West Ham on Saturday.

Norwich have been hit by Covid cases in their squad and Smith was also without several injured players for Tuesday’s 2-0 home defeat against his old side Aston Villa.

Manchester United had their match at Brentford on Tuesday called off due to Covid cases in their squad, while Tottenham were also able to postpone their trip to Brighton last weekend amid the wave of the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

Norwich are due to face West Ham at the London Stadium this weekend and players will undergo more testing over the next 48 hours.

Smith says he is unaware of the number positive cases required for a game to be postponed, but has called for the Premier League to introduce “magic number”.

"We played Tottenham and they had an outbreak, we played Manchester United and they had an outbreak," Smith said after Norwich lost to Villa at Carrow Road.

"We wanted guidance whether it would be fair on Villa if we had symptomatic players around us.

“I’m not saying all our players are symptomatic and have Covid, because some are injured.

"I would normally name the team the day before and could have eight players [affected] who would be in the first team.

"Then the fact that Ozan Kabak goes down and Sam Byram makes his first appearance in two years - we are down to the bare bones.

"I will find out over the next 48 hours from the medical staff about our cases. I have seen new Premier league protocols where we are tested every day. The heat is on, not just across football but across the country."

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