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Updated / Friday, 8 Jan 2021
10:43
Premier League clubs are playing their first FA Cup ties of the season this weekend
Aston Villa will field a youth team in their FA Cup clash with Liverpool after coronavirus swept through the senior squad.
No first-team players will take part in the third-round game at Villa Park and boss Dean Smith will not manage the side on Friday, it is understood.
Assistants John Terry, Craig Shakespeare and Richard O Kelly will also not be at the match, with no individual in the senior bubble involved.
Under-23s coach Mark Delaney, who played for Villa between 1999 and 2007, will take the side which will be made up of Under-18 and Under-23 players.
PREMIER LEAGUE managers have debated the merits of continuing the season amid a coronavirus resurgence which continues to wreak havoc with scheduling at all levels of the English game.
Aston Villa’s FA Cup tie against Liverpool this evening is going ahead, even though nine players and five members of staff at the Midlands club are understood to have tested positive for Covid-19.
Villa fielded a line-up featuring under-23 and under-18 players for the cup tie, but question marks surround their ability to fulfil the Premier League fixture against Tottenham on Wednesday and the following weekend’s game against Everton.