England vs New Zealand friendly cancelled due to Covid-19 'travel and player availability complications'

England's international friendly against New Zealand has been cancelled after their opponents withdrew due to "travel and player availability" concerns linked to the coronavirus.

The fixture was scheduled to take place at Wembley on November 12 ahead of the Three Lions' Nations League match against Belgium three days later.

But the All Whites have been forced to withdraw from participation as they could not guarantee being able to bring a squad over for the game amid Covid-19 travel restrictions.

England will now search for another international team to face in a month's time.

A statement released on England's official twitter account read: "We can confirm New Zealand’s withdrawal from next month’s international friendly.

"We will announce replacement opposition in due course."

New Zealand Football, who are 121st in the Fifa world rankings, revealed their "deep regret" at not being able to fulfil the fixture.

"It is with deep regret that we have been forced to cancel our participation in the upcoming match against England at Wembley," CEO Andrew Pragnall said.

“It is not an action taken lightly, this is a match we all wanted to play, however, as it stands of the last All Whites squad selected for the November 2019 tour, even excluding the New Zealand based players, a significant number of the team would be subject to quarantine or restrictions on their return home.

"This would heavily disrupt their domestic seasons and potentially jeopardise their professional careers."

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