Norwich City head coach Dean Smith questioned the festive fixture schedule ahead of Boxing Day's match at home to Arsenal and rising COVID-19 cases in football.
Smith confirmed that the club had received fresh positive COVID-19 cases ahead of the game, but at this stage, with some players returning from illness and isolation, the team are due to play on Sunday and then two days later away at Crystal Palace.
"We have had some fresh cases, but we have got others coming back from previous cases as well," he said. "I think we are pretty similar to a lot of other clubs at the moment.
"We are not sure (how many will miss Boxing Day yet) because we have to have a PCR (test) within 48 hours of the game and that is our last point to really to find out who is going to be missing and who is going to be available. We will train today (Christmas Eve) and train again tomorrow (Christmas Day) morning and have a look at the numbers we have got."
Dean added that Mathias Normann, Grant Hanley, Milot Rashica and Andrew Omobamdiele, would not be returning for the games over the festive period, which leaves Norwich short on numbers with games coming thick and fast.
"We all know that there is a tradition with the festive scheduling and it is difficult normally, but it is nigh on impossible to ask players to play twice in 48 hours and I, at the moment, don’t know how we are going to do it," he said.
"We have got a lot of players coming back, some from COVID-19 cases, some from injuries, and we are having to push rehab forward and people are breaking down because of that.
"It is asking massive questions of everybody’s squads at the moment and it is lunacy that we are having to play two games in 48 hours. There has got to be a question about the integrity of the competition when teams are playing weakened teams against other teams and it is affecting league positions.
"We had it the other day against Aston Villa and I blame myself for not pushing to get the game called off because we shouldn’t have played.
"I had four players pull out on the day of the game. I had three players on the bench who I couldn’t put on and we ended up bringing on a player who hadn’t played for 22 months after 43 minutes. Thankfully, Sam Byram got through the game but we are in a dangerous situation where we are risking the health and well being of the players."