SPFL reject St Mirren request for Celtic and Rangers games to be postponed due to Covid outbreaks

Covid-hit St Mirren's request to postpone upcoming games against Celtic and Rangers has been rejected.

St Mirren are dealing with a Covid-19 outbreak.

St Mirren asked the Scottish Professional Football League to reschedule their game against Celtic, who are due to visit Paisley on Wednesday night, and their Boxing Day trip to Ibrox.

However, an SPFL spokesman confirmed that the request had been rejected. The league will continue to monitor the situation.

It is understood that St Mirren have enough players available for the game to go ahead under rules brought in to provide a template for coronavirus outbreaks.

However, some players are still awaiting the results of PCR tests.

St Mirren earlier confirmed they had requested postponements of both games following "further positive Covid tests".

A club statement added: "We have tried our utmost to fulfil the fixture, however, following further positive Covid cases this morning, we are unable to field a team for either match with a significant number of first-team players and staff unavailable.

"The health and wellbeing of our players and staff remains our utmost priority and we will continue to take every precaution necessary.

"We are in continued discussions with the SPFL and we will keep supporters updated as we look for a resolution to this matter."

The Buddies had suspended training on Friday following positive tests but were still working on the basis of the Celtic game going ahead.

The club scheduled a pre-match media conference by Zoom on Tuesday afternoon but it was twice delayed and they then announced they had sought a postponement.

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