Saturday’s FA Cup third-round tie between Southampton and Shrewsbury is off after a significant number of Shrews players and staff tested positive for coronavirus.
The League One club do not have enough fit, non-isolating players to play the game at St Mary’s Stadium.
The Football Association’s professional game board will decide what will happen with the fixture “early next week”.
Shrewsbury have not trained this week and shut their facilities for 10 days.
The Shropshire side said they had been given medical advice that “it would be unsafe” to play the match, with Southampton told of the decision on Thursday morning.
“The results that came back on Tuesday were quite astronomical,” said Shrewsbury chief executive Brian Caldwell, who would not give exact numbers of those infected but said the new strain of the virus had “wiped” through the club’s staff.
“The health and wellbeing of our football players and staff is far more important than getting a TV fee for an FA Cup tie, albeit it would’ve been lovely to get that finance during a period where we’ve not had any income for nearly a year.”
Wayne Rooney and Derby’s first-team squad will miss their FA Cup tie at Chorley on Saturday following a Covid-19 outbreak which closed their training ground on Monday.
The Rams team for the game at Victory Park will be made up of under-23 and under-18 players.
Shrewsbury’s League One derby against Crewe on New Year’s Day was also called off because of the outbreak, while BBC Shropshire report their next league game against Lincoln on 16 January is also thought to be in doubt.
Southampton are sixth in the Premier League after beating leaders Liverpool on Monday.
- Stream eight live FA Cup third-round games this weekend on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and app. Find out more here.
