The Women’s Super League (WSL) north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham at Emirates Stadium on Saturday remains in doubt following a Covid outbreak in the Spurs squad.
Spurs' WSL game against Chelsea on Wednesday was called off following a spate of positive tests and the club has since increased both testing in the squad and cleaning protocols at the training ground in a bid to contain the outbreak.
The players who have not tested positive and those who are not displaying symptoms are continuing to train.
WSL rules state that if a club has less than 15 players available through Covid reasons, they can apply for a postponement.
The Football Association (FA), which runs the WSL, liaised with Spurs over the situation on Thursday morning and are waiting to discover if the club will need to request a postponement for Saturday.
The women's side train in a separate area of Hotspur Way to Antonio Conte's men’s squad, who returned from three days off on Thursday morning, so there is no concern about cross-contamination.
Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall said the club had yet to hear from the WSL but insisted the Gunners want to play, despite their Champions League quarter-final second leg against Wolfsburg coming next Thursday.
"No, no dialogue," Eidevall said on Wednesday night. "Believe it or not, Arsenal Women wants to play matches. We want to play. It doesn’t change. It is not my style, it is not our culture or identity to not want to play.
“We want to play. Of course we want to play. We want to play in front of our fans, we want to enjoy the moment. But, of course, we need to see what the officials say, to get clarity. I don’t know more than you probably know."
Conte recently hit back at Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal men's head coach, for complaining about the fixture schedule, saying he had not forgotten that the Gunners requested a postponement of January's north London derby, despite having only one confirmed Covid case in their squad.
