Manchester United striker Edinson Cavani has expressed his bemusement at the Premier League’s decision not to let their players head off on international duty in ‘red list countries next month.
Top-flight chiefs held an urgent call on Tuesday afternoon regarding their approach over players traveling for international matches and all 20 clubs ‘reluctantly but unanimously’ came together to enforce the block.
If players were to travel to ‘red list’ areas they would have to isolate for 10 days on their return and therefore potentially miss two rounds of Premier League fixtures, a European clash as well as a League Cup third-round tie.
England’s top-flight are risking a ban from FIFA after refusing to allow their stars to play international football in September in the UK’s ‘red list’ zones.
It is as a result that the 34-year-old Cavani appeared to show his disapproval at the Premier League’s decision on his Instagram story, captioning a picture of the English top-flight’s statement with three question marks.
Uruguay international is therefore set to miss the World Cup qualifying triple-header as his homeland falls into the ‘red-list’ category.
Liverpool and Manchester City had already indicated they would stop the likes of Mohamed Salah and their Brazilian contingents from joining up with their international teams.
The Premier League still hope the UK Government will change their stance and grant exemptions that would allow stars to travel to ‘red-list’ countries without quarantining, which was in place last season and for Euro 2020 this summer.
FIFA could suspend players from playing for their clubs until five days after the end of the international break but they are trying to work out a solution by negotiating with the clubs, national federations and governments.
The Government are reluctant to relax their Covid quarantine rules after coming under fire for doing so for the semi-finals and final of the European Championships at Wembley.