Government considering banning sporting fixtures over Coronavirus as Leeds United's clash at Cardiff City looms

However, no bans on sporting fixtures are expected immediately with Johnson saying such a measure was instead something being kept up the Government's sleeves.

The PM's update comes with Leeds United three days away from Sunday's Championship clash at Cardiff City.

Announcing plans as the UK government moved to the "delay" phase of its plan to tackle coronavirus, Johnson said: "We are considering banning major public events like sporting fixtures.

"The scientific advice is this has little effect on the spread - but it does place a burden on other public services.

"We are guided by the science; there is no medical reason at the moment to ban such events.

"We are not saying no to that sort of measure, we are keeping it up our sleeves.

"But it is very, very important in order to maximise our interventions that we get the timing right."