Burnley vs Everton the latest Premier League Boxing Day clash postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak

A third Premier League game on Boxing Day has been postponed, with Everton’s trip to Burnley called off.

A Covid-19 outbreak in the Everton camp, combined with injury issues, led to the announcement on Friday morning.

The Toffees confirmed: “Our Premier League fixture at Burnley on Boxing Day has been postponed due to the number of COVID cases and injuries in our squad.”

Rafa Benitez had asked for the game to be called off when addressing the media on Thursday due to 11 absent players.

He said: “We have six injuries and five players with COVID.

“We have followed all the rules, we have done lateral flows every day, we do the PCRs and we have worn the masks. We have players in three different dressing rooms [to reduce the risk of transmission].

"But we cannot control if you go to a game, if a player is positive but has not got any symptoms, he can pass the virus to the others. After we played against Chelsea, we found we have five positives.

“We have nine outfield players and three keepers. And then we have to bring five new young players into the team, who are not even 21 years old.

"We have players who have knocks and we have to push them. Dominic [Calvert-Lewin] has been out for two months and maybe has to play for 90 minutes. It is a massive risk."

A huge fixture pile-up is now set to hit the league, and in particular Burnley with this the fourth game called off for Sean Dyche’s side in four weeks. A late November clash with Tottenham was lost to snow before Covid claimed matches against Watford, Aston Villa and now Everton.