Leeds United clash at Cardiff City back in huge doubt with EFL Board to meet over Coronavirus

The news comes two days before Leeds United's scheduled Championship clash at Cardiff City on Sunday lunch-time.

Chelsea's Callum Hudson-Odoi became the first Premier League player to test positive for Coronavirus on Thursday while Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is self-isolating after also testing positive for the virus.

The Arsenal and Chelsea first-team squads are in self-isolation while Leicester City (three) and Manchester City (one) also have players in self-isolation.

The Premier League are subsequently holding an emergency phone-conference at 10.30am on Friday morning with a suspension of several weeks probable to include an international break.

The EFL will now also hold a meeting on Friday morning and games in the EFL are expected to follow suit.

An EFL Spokesman said: “The EFL Board will meet this morning to make a decision on this weekend’s fixtures and beyond.”

The EFL had said on Thursday that following the latest advice from the Government, matches due to take place this coming weekend would be unaffected.

An EFL statement released on Thursday evening read: “In light of today’s announcement by the UK Government, EFL matches will continue to take place as normal while the guidance from the relevant authorities remains that there is no medical rationale to close or cancel sporting events at this time.

“The EFL, however, will continue to work with Government and relevant stakeholders to further develop contingency plans to ensure the League is best placed to act as and when any potential restrictions may come into force.

“Immediately following the announcement by the Prime Minister, EFL Chair Rick Parry held discussions with the FA and Premier League and agreed on a consistent approach ahead of this weekend’s round of fixtures.

“Matters will be further discussed at a meeting called by European Football’s Governing body, UEFA, on Tuesday 17 March.

“The League will continue to liaise with the Government regarding ongoing developments and will continue to work with clubs to ensure players, staff and supporters are updated and appraised accordingly.

“These matters are, of course, subject to change and we will update as appropriate.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that the Government were considering banning sporting fixtures in light of the Coronavirus outbreak.

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

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."

UEFA will give major consideration to delaying this summer's Euro 2020 tournament until next year.

European football's governing body has called a meeting of its 55 member associations next week to discuss the matter.