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Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has said that he has had a “terrible” past week dealing with the coronavirus outbreak at the club.

Spurs’ season already faced a headache after snow postponed the recent Premier League clash against Burnley. However, eight players and five staff then tested positive for Covid-19.

As such, games against Rennes and Brighton last Thursday and Sunday, respectively, were also in the firing line.

The Premier League can rearrange the clash with the Seagulls. Although, UEFA declared on Saturday that they will decide the Europa Conference League result against Rennes because they could not find another suitable date for the fixture.

Back at Tottenham, the club’s Hotspur Way training facilities closed during the coronavirus outbreak.

Conte admitted in Wednesday’s press conference that he, his players and his staff have had a tough week.

“Last week was terrible because the government decides, in the right way, to close the training ground and stop our training session. I had the press conference where it’s very difficult to speak about football,” he said.

“Then we had Thursday, Friday and Saturday without any sessions. Sunday we started again to work with not many players, because we also had problems with Under-23s.

We started with 13/14 players [on Sunday] and today we had training with 16 players and more young players.”

Conte was speaking ahead of Thursday’s Premier League clash with Leicester. The Italian manager and his Foxes counterpart Brendan Rodgers revealed that their clubs asked the Premier League to postpone the game.

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However, the league rejected the proposal. Conte and Rodgers have said that they will field as best a team as they can, with the Foxes also facing injury and illness issues.

But Conte added that another “big problem” for players is looming when the isolation period is over.

Conte warns of coronavirus problem for players

“The Covid is not only 10 days and many times he brings with this virus a situation that you make your body not so strong. For this reason you have players injured after Covid,” the manager said.

“This is the big problem that we must be good to face in the future. To bring these players affected by Covid to be fit and avoid injuries. This could be the big problem in the future. Not the ten days.

“After ten days you have players available but then you have to pay attention to the way to train, whether the body is ready to work in a good way.

“You have to pay attention, moderate the training to avoid injuries. This is the big problem, not only for Tottenham but for other clubs with Covid-hit players.”

Conte added that Spurs “want to play the game” against Rennes and were not at fault for the circumstances of the postponement. He added that it is a “really strange situation”.

Tottenham lost to Leicester last December but won the other Premier League meeting between the teams last season 4-2.

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