Following the change of fixture for Saturday’s game against Leamington FC, Coventry City Chief Executive Dave Boddy has provided the following further information for fans.
“This decision has been made to try and protect our preparations for the season, which were badly affected last year by COVID and it’s therefore vitally important to get them right this season.
“Mark Robins sees the Spanish training camp, which we have reguarly been on, as a vital part of the squad’s physical preparations for the Championship season ahead, with much hard work going on during the training camp and also having the fixture against Sevilla.
“We have had a number of our players and staff have received positive COVID tests this week. 2 senior first team players tested positive today and will now self-isolate for 10 days. As a consequence, we decided that the first-team group and those travelling to Spain should not attend on Saturday as a precaution.
“We worked incredibly hard last season to protect the playing squad and management against contracting COVID but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to do that as Government restrictions are lifted.
“This is as a precaution to protect the rest of the squad following the positive cases and hopefully ensure we can undertake the important training in Spain.
“We have chosen to send a young Under 23s squad, who currently train away from Ryton, so that Leamington still have a fixture while hopefully also protecting our preparation too.
“We have an excellent relationship with Leamington and are very disappointed we had to make this decision, and again thank them for their understanding.
“This is not about disrespect to supporters or to Leamington but instead about protecting our pre-season preparations and the players and staff of both Clubs.”
Boddy added:
“We understand that supporters haven’t seen the team for 18 months and bought tickets for Saturday expecting to watch the first-team – as was our expectation too.
“Sky Blues fans who have bought for Leamington will receive a free ticket from us for the Wolves pre-season friendly at the Coventry Building Society Arena and still be able to attend Saturday’s game and support Luke Tisdale’s young side. We will have further information regarding this offer to fans shortly.”