Blackburn to play on despite swine flu

Blackburn Rovers have insisted their League Cup tie against Peterborough will go ahead as planned on Tuesday despite three players at the club, as well as staff members, suffering with swine flu.

Rovers manager Sam Allardyce revealed Monday the virus had struck prior to last weekend’s 5-0 thrashing by Premier League leaders Chelsea but refused to name the players involved.

Asked if Christopher Samba and David Dunn, who missed the Chelsea match, were among the affected, Allardyce said on Monday: “It’s definitely swine flu – you’ve speculated on the names and I’ll leave it at that.

“We have had one more case this morning, one more player and there are a couple of staff.

“Other than that, the others that we left behind are recovering well but not available for tomorrow (Tuesday).”

Allardyce said Premier Legaue rules gave them little option but to travel to Chelsea for Saturday’s match at Stamford Bridge, even though he accepted there was a chance the virus could have been passed on.

“The Premier League has tried to sit on the fence by saying that we didn’t request to have the game called off,” Allardyce said.

“We knew we couldn’t get the game called off because we were told way back in February or March when we took some guidelines that unless there was some government legislation, everybody had to do whatever they had to do.

“If there was a swine flu outbreak, you couldn’t call a game off, no matter what,” he added.

“We fulfilled our total, 100 percent, responsibility by confirming two cases of swine flu and suggesting it looks like one or two other players and members of staff had similar symptoms, and we made the same phone call to Chelsea.”

Allardyce added: “It’s a highly contagious strain as everybody knows but I can’t comment any further than that.”

Rovers would have also required special Football League dispensation to postpone the Peterborough tie but insisted Monday the game was still on.

Blackburn secretary Andrew Pincher said: “There has been speculation in the national media following confirmation of sickness within the camp, but we can reassure all supporters that the tie will go ahead as planned.”

Last weekend’s French League match between Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain was postponed after three players from the capital club contracted swine flu.