James Maddison, Ayoze Perez and Hamza Choudhury were dropped for Leicester City’s match against West Ham on Sunday after violating the coronavirus guidelines regarding squad bubbles.
The trio was conspicuously absent when the match day squad was announced for what was Leicester’s biggest match to date. Without them, the fox fell to a damaging 3-2 defeat.
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With the Foxes 2-0 down with the permission of a Jesse Lingard stay, Sun broke the story that the trio had been left out due to a violation of the Covid-19 rules. Harvey Barnes is also said to have been involved, although he is currently recovering from an injury and would not have played against the Hammers anyway.
A statement from the club read: “The club has made its expectations regarding compliance with Covid-19 protocols superfluous for all its staff.
“It is therefore very discouraging to learn about a crime that had the potential to undermine club staff’s efforts to protect the environments in which our teams train and play. Appropriate measures have been taken to prevent our team bubbles from being jeopardized.
Jarrod Bowen made it 3-0 West Ham after half time | Julian Finney / Getty Images
“We fully expect our people to behave in a way that reflects the national efforts and sacrifices made by our societies to control the spread of the virus. Those involved have apologized for their poor judgment. Our response to the matter will be settled internally. “
When asked about the three players’ absence before kick-off, Brendan Rodger’s cousin was in his answer, indicating that they were not available for the fixture but would be back in action for Leicester’s FA Cup semi-final against Southampton next Sunday.
But in his post-match press conference, he highlighted the situation and said (via Jason Bourne): “It’s not the standard we expect. We have a standard on and off the pitch we have to follow. The consequence of their behavior is that they missed this game. . “
