Grant McCann explains Hull's decision to reject West Ham offer over Covid-19 testing before Carabao Cup tie
Hull City manager Grant McCann has defended the club's decision not to take up West Ham's offer to pay for their Covid-19 testing ahead of Tuesday's Carabao Cup third-round tie, saying the club "didn't want to create anything".
Opposite number David Moyes plus Hammers players Issa Diop and Josh Cullen were told they had tested positive for coronavirus just over an hour before kick-off and were quickly sent home, with West Ham carefully following protocols outlined for such situations.
Medical staff from both clubs consulted with each other and the EFL before deciding that the game would go ahead.
Clubs outside of the Premier League are not required to test their players weekly, though Carabao Cup ties have seen the likes of Tottenham - whose offer to pay for testing saw a number of positive cases flagged in the Leyton Orient squad, with that game subsequently called off - and Chelsea fork out for tests to be carried out on players and staff from lower-league clubs.
West Ham offered to do the same for League One Hull, who declined.
"Because we didn’t want to create anything," McCann said when asked why. "We are comfortable we were following the guidelines in and around the club.
"We decided against it, we felt we were fine. No one is showing any symptoms or anything like that. We always monitor the players’ well-being.
"We can get tested wherever we want. We are following the guidelines of the EFL. Just because somebody offers you free tests it doesn’t mean you do it.
"We are comfortable with what we are doing. We are monitoring the players at every level."
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