Fears have emerged over the Chelsea-Everton with reports claiming that the Stamford Bridge club have had at least four players, not including Mateo Kovacic, test positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.

Goal reveals that Chelsea are currently testing the squad who have been in close contact with the players who have already tested positive for COVID-19. There could be more positive tests before kick-off vs Everton tonight.

But, according to the Evening London Standard, the game is still due to go ahead despite fresh cases of Covid among the first-team squad at Chelsea.

It is understood a “small number” of players tested positive on Wednesday, joining Kovacic in isolation.

That immediately threw the game with Everton into doubt, with the football calendar rapidly being impacted by the spread of Omicron.

But the situation at Chelsea is not considered an outbreak because there were no new cases during testing on Thursday morning.

It is understood that it takes two consecutive days of positive cases for an outbreak to be declared, with Chelsea having no fresh cases since Wednesday.

But doubts will still remain given the rapidly changing situation at clubs.

There are growing fears the Premier League will have to shut down due to the failure to control Omicron.

Tottenham had games against Rennes and Brighton postponed last week after an outbreak among staff and first-team players.

Manchester United shut down first team operations this week, leading to the calling off of their visit to Brentford.

And late on Thursday Burnley’s clash with Watford became the latest to be postponed.