St Mirren become latest Scottish Premiership club to confirm positive Covid cases as training suspended

St Mirren have confirmed a number of positive Covid tests within their squad, throwing their Scottish Premiership games against Celtic and Rangers into doubt.

The Paisley outfit released a statement on Friday morning announcing the news that training has been suspended as a precaution.

Jim Goodwin’s side are not in Scottish Premiership action this weekend with their next fixture against the Hoops scheduled for Wednesday night, before facing Rangers at Ibrox on Boxing Day.

The Buddies will monitor the situation in the upcoming days but insist that both fixtures will go ahead as planned.

A club statement read: “St Mirren Football Club can confirm that following recent lateral flow testing we have unfortunately received a number of positive COVID-19 cases.

“In line with Government guidelines, those affected have now taken PCR tests and will self-isolate for 10 days.

“Training has been suspended, but as it stands our upcoming matches will still go ahead. We will continue to monitor the situation over the coming days.

“The health and wellbeing of our players and staff remains our utmost priority.

“St Mirren Football Club will make no further comment at this time.”

Saints game against Celtic was rescheduled due to Ange Postecoglou’s side involvement in Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final.

St Mirren are not the only top-flight club affected by the fast-spreading Omicron variant after Dundee United were forced to shut down their training ground earlier this week following several positive tests.

The Tangerines had travelled to Newcastle for a Christmas team night out but the club have reportedly contained the outbreak and are confident their clash with Rangers on Saturday WILL go ahead.

Neighbours Dundee are also said to be anxiously waiting the outcome of one Covid test, after manager James McPake revealed a first-team player had been sent for a PCR test after being identified as a close contact to a household member.

FIVE English Premiership games have already been called off this weekend, with Manchester United versus Brighton the latest fixture to be scrapped due to the sharp rise in cases.