Tony Mowbray spoke passionately about the uncertainty and lack of clarity around postponements amid rising Covid cases in the EFL.

Rovers saw their Boxing Day game at Hull City postponed just two hours prior to kick-off, the first fixture they had lost to Covid since football restarted in June 2020.

Mowbray confirmed they currently have no positive cases within the first-team squad ahead of Wednesday night’s visit of Barnsley and also reported no fresh injuries.

That will come on the back of the Hull City postponement, with the Tigers having since called off their game at Sheffield United tomorrow night.

Rovers have asked the EFL for clarity over the details, with Mowbray saying there has been no transparency over how the Tigers came to be under the 14-player threshold outlined by the league.

He said: “How frustrating? You can’t put words on how frustrating it is when you plan and prepare and people make sacrifices with their family at such an important time of year, especially people with young kids.

“To be left two hours before kick-off, we’d just done our team meeting and were about to get on the bus and then we got the call, I can’t understand how the organisation, the EFL, allows to happen what happened.

“I’m not a politician, I don’t want to get involved in politics, it’s for other people cleverer than me to sort out.

“Where’s the clarification? How many were Covid? How many injured? How many close contacts? We’ve not heard anything, don’t know anything.

“I would just like some clarification. I would never cast any aspersions, Hull City are a fantastic football club, when you go there it’s an amazing stadium to play football and some very good people at that club.

“I wouldn’t cast any aspersions but I think there needs to be some clarity and I would say the same if it was us.

“We would need to say in my mind if we called a game off that we had eight Covid cases, seven injuries and we can’t play.

“What I can’t believe is that the 25-man squads haven’t been scrapped over this period. Why can’t you play someone not in your 25-man squad?

“You have a whole youth team down the road, 18 or 19-year-olds, I would expect us to do the same if we were asked.

“If we had an outbreak then I’d feel it on the other foot I suppose but it’s very frustrating when you try so hard, put so many restrictions on people that games get called off and there’s seemingly no accountability that’s transparent.”

Hull said they contacted the EFL about the rising cases within the camp on Friday, two days prior to the game, after head coach Grant McCann tested positive.

Further tests were then carried out on the day of the game which is when fresh cases were recorded.

The EFL were then notified at 12pm before the announcement was made at 1pm.

At that point Rovers were at the team hotel ready to make the journey to the MKM Stadium, the players having tested on the morning before making the trip to East Yorkshire having not trained on Christmas Day.

Mowbray explained: “We’re going by the EFL rules and 24 hours before the game you can test. I didn’t have the players in on Christmas Day so we didn’t test.

“We tested on the day of the game. The players who got on the coach at Brockhall tested before they got of their cars.

“Some who live in Manchester, we did a pick-up on route and they tested in their cars before they got on the two coaches that we took so we could be spaced out and didn’t have any close contacts.

“I myself drove to the hotel where we had the pre-match meal and meeting and sat in my car and had a negative test before I got out of my vehicle.

“Everyone was tested on the day.

“The rules are saying that you could have trained on Christmas Day and tested then and not have to test again after that.”

Rovers face Barnsley tomorrow night, the Reds having seen their Boxing Day clash with Stoke City postponed because of Covid cases within the Potters squad.

Mowbray and his players have tested every day since the Hull City game with no positive cases.

On what happens now in the lead-up to the Barnsley game, he explained: “I asked specifically our club secretary what are the rules and he said that we have to test the day before. We have and we’re all clear.

“Why are we testing again? You could argue ‘what if someone gets it tomorrow, Tony?’ Well, if they’re asymptomatic are you going to pass it onto your team-mates?

“Let’s test five minutes before kick-off shall we? When is the cut-off time? When do you want to do your test?

“The EFL are saying test the day before the game and we’ve tested and we’ve done that.

“What I say to the players is that if you’re feeling unwell, have a headache, a cold, a cough, a sore throat, ring the doctor and he’ll tell you that you can’t come and go and do a PCR test and that’s the way of the world.

“We don’t have to test tomorrow as far as I’m concerned because we’ve all had negative tests, let’s get on and play the game.”