Aberdeen’s game with St Johnstone off after two positive tests

Aberdeen were heading to Perth after an opening-day defeat by Rangers

Aberdeen’s Scottish Premiership match away to St Johnstone has been postponed after two of the visitors’ players tested positive for Covid-19.

Six other players from the Pittodrie club have been forced to self-isolate after coming within “close proximity” in an Aberdeen pub on Saturday.

Aberdeen are due to host Hamilton Academical on Wednesday and are then away to Celtic the following Saturday.

It is yet unclear if Aberdeen face any sanction under league rules.

Saturday’s game at McDiarmid Park was part of the second weekend of Premiership fixtures after last season was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Initially, it had appeared that the game in Perth would go ahead despite Aberdeen being forced to cancel training on Thursday and facing the prospect of playing without eight squad members forced to self-isolate.

But Minister for public health and sport Joe Fitzpatrick had called a meeting with the Scottish FA and SPFL for Friday to discuss the situation after what a government statement called “a clear breach of the rules”.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop told BBC Radio Scotland she hoped the mood of the discussions would be “frank and honest” but also “supportive”.

She described the club’s positive cases as “deeply disturbing and concerning”.

“One of the ways we managed to get football back on a professional basis was agreement with protocols with the SFA and SPFL and it’s important that those have been adhered to – and that will be the subject of discussion later on today,” she says.

“In general, we have to remember that the actions of one affect all, whether that’s in football, whether that’s in hospitality, or in your own home. Covid has not gone away. If we want to get back to activities like professional football, like hospitality, like seeing more of our friends and family, we have to be vigilant.”

All eight Aberdeen players were in a bar linked to the city’s Covid-19 spike on Saturday following their opening-day defeat by Rangers.

One of the initial cases was confirmed by a follow-up NHS test and the other player is awaiting further results.

Both are asymptomatic but are self-isolating along with six players who were “in close proximity”.

In a social media post on Friday, Aberdeen chairman Cormack appealed for “patience” with the affected players, pointed out that everyone “is prone to errors of judgement” and stressed that “it is all about how we respond to something we wish had not happened”.