“We are still preparing for the game, which is difficult bearing in mind the disrupted week we have had,” he said. “We've had players, as most clubs will have done, who have had symptoms of not being well. We've had players experiencing illness this week, who have stayed at home. We had somebody with a chest infection, somebody with an upset stomach and players who have shown flu-like symptoms. We've got one player awaiting tests results on his symptoms. Not everybody is the same and we've had people who feel okay.”

After consultation with the club's hierarchy and the medical staff, Pearson took the decision to cancel training yesterday.

“We were due to have a day offsite yesterday but we decided against that because of growing concerns surrounding coronavirus. In the end, we told all the players and the technical staff to stay at home. We did that as a precautionary measure. Yesterday morning, Gino, Scott Duxbury and Filippo Giraldi sat down and discussed how to deal with the situation here. We have tried to be as proactive as possible and to look after the best interests of our players, their families and the staff.