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Sweden and Denmark without EPL players due to travel restrictions

Denmark and Sweden will be without their English Premier League-based players for their friendly in Copenhagen on Thursday morning (Singapore time), due to travel restrictions imposed by the UK government over a new coronavirus strain linked to Danish mink farms.

"We have seven players who have to stay in England and we have called up nine others for the match against Sweden," the Danish football federation told AFP yesterday.

The Swedish FA had announced on Sunday that five players would be unable to join the squad for the same reasons.

"If the players have to quarantine for more than five days after meeting up with the team, there is no obligation for clubs to release the players," the Swedish FA said in a statement.

As a result, Denmark will be missing goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, Andreas Christensen, Jannik Vestergaard and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

Sweden will not be able to call upon Victor Lindelof, Robin Olsen or Emil Krafth, but the trio are expected to be available for Nations League games against Croatia and France on Saturday and next Tuesday.

Last week, Denmark, the world's biggest producer of mink fur, said it would slaughter over 15 million minks after a mutated version of the coronavirus was detected at mink farms and had spread to 12 people.

Last Saturday, Britain banned entry to all non-resident foreigners coming from Denmark, while ordering UK citizens and permanent residents returning from Denmark to self-isolate for 14 days. - AFP

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