We all vividly recall football’s enforced three-month hiatus amidst the global pandemic, just as we remember well the empty stands that greeted the players on their return.
What has probably been forgotten however from this prolonged grim period, considered inconsequential perhaps in the great scheme of things, are the small number of games that were cancelled in the autumn and winter of 2021, due to players or managers testing positive for Covid.
In December of that year, Wolves’ trip to Arsenal was postponed when several of their players tested positive. Tottenham also requested, and were granted, a postponement for the same reason.
Around this period, Aston Villa left it very late indeed, pulling out of a league meeting with Burnley with just two hours to spare. Sean Dyche’s men heard the news when finishing their pre-match meal.
Yet, late notifications aside, nobody really questioned clubs shelving their fixtures when players became unavailable for health reasons, nor should they have. It was briefly the norm of the day, a normality moreover that was occurring in offices and workplaces all across the land.
Still, it would have been interesting to get Bryan Robson’s thoughts when such postponements were so readily acquiesced to by the Premier League. That would have made for a fascinating conversation indeed.
It is December 20th, 1996 and Robson’s Middlesbrough side – the one with Juninho, Emerson and Ravanelli; the one that reached two cup finals that year, losing both, and enthralled a whole lot of people but still somehow managed to defy the football odds and get relegated from the top-flight – are just 24 hours away from playing away at Blackburn Rovers.
Mid-table fare though they were, Rovers still had Duff, Ripley and Sutton. Their time featured as title contenders in the Premier League tips may have passed, but this was a very capable side and Boro were in desperate need of the points.
Which presumably made it all the more disheartening when Boro began their preparations for the fixture plagued by injuries, a predicament that was exacerbated hugely when fit players began to complain of sore throats and fatigue in the lead up to the game.
As Tuesday rolled into Wednesday, and Wednesday bled into Thursday, a flu virus swept through the Boro training camp, downing players and staff alike. There were more people in the treatment room, or sent home, than in boots.
Which meant that on the Friday, Robson did a head-count and realised he had only 17 players he could select. Three were goalkeepers. Five had never before come close to making the first team.
Crucially too, there was the very real threat of one or several of these 17 succumbing to the virus as kick-off approached.
In desperation Boro’s chief executive Keith Lamb reached out to the Premier League’s hierarchy only to discover they were all on holiday.
Instead, he spoke to a senior figure who made himself known only as ‘Mr Cooke’. Mr Cooke informed Lamb that ‘just cause’ would have to be proven beforehand in the form of a list of ill and injured players. A fax therefore was sent.
Moreover, an invitation was made for officials to visit Middlesbrough’s training facilities, to see for themselves the carnage that was unfolding. Only then came radio silence.
Their forthcoming opponents were not informed, as the Premier League promised they would be. Nobody followed up on the faxed list.
Stuck in a hinterland of uncertainty, Boro felt they had no choice other than to announce they were withdrawing from their commitment to play at Blackburn the following day. And that’s when holy hell was unleashed.
Rovers were incandescent, insisting their opponents were duty bound to field any side they could, the juniors if necessary, and panicked and on the back foot, the Premier League agreed, possibly swayed further by the negative media reaction.
A month later, at a hearing that has subsequently been compared by some to a kangaroo court, Middlesbrough football club were docked three points, in addition to having their trip to Ewood Park rescheduled.
They battled to a 0-0 draw that day when the match finally too place but ultimately it was too little, too late, soon after enduring relegation two points adrift of safety.
On this day in 1996, had they played 11 kids and lost 10-0, Middlesbrough would have stayed up come May by a single point.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
