Quarantine rules force Man City to scrap Troyes trip

Manchester City’s pre-season preparations suffered a double blow on Wednesday as a friendly against Troyes was cancelled due to a change in quarantine rules and another fixture against Preston North End will now take place behind closed doors. 

City’s plans of playing in France have been scrapped after the UK government announced that anybody arriving from the country must quarantine for a 10-day period. 

A City statement on the club’s official website said: “Both clubs explored all avenues to be able to play the game, but the recent UK government changes to quarantine rules for travellers returning from France, has made the required restrictions too difficult to overcome.

“Pep Guardiola’s first-team squad will remain in Manchester and continue their pre-season preparations at the City Football Academy. There are no plans to replace the [Troyes] friendly with another pre-season fixture.”

That leaves the Premier League champions with just the sole friendly against Preston before they challenge Leicester City in the Community Shield on August 7.

And no supporters will be present for the game against Preston next Tuesday, with coronavirus-enforced closures to the academy building at City due to end on Monday and the close proximity to the match prompting the club to take a “precautionary approach”. 

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— PepTeam (@PepTeam) July 20, 2021