Antonio Conte insists Spurs are ready to follow Premier League's Covid-19 guidance

Antonio Conte has said he and his Tottenham players are ready to follow whatever protocols the Premier League come up with to combat the recent spike in Covid-19 cases.

Five of this weekend's ten Premier League games have already been postponed due to Covid outbreaks within clubs, while Spurs' last three games in all competitions have been called off following a surge in positive tests.

All 20 Premier League clubs will meet on Monday in hope of agreeing to continue the season rather than to implement a circuit breaker shutdown.

Conte was asked how he would prefer the season to progress after it was suggested that the integrity of the league could be compromised if a large number of clubs are unable to fulfil their fixtures.

"My thoughts are we are ready to follow the rules," Conte said in his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of Liverpool.

"I think that this is the most important thing. If there are the rules, they have to be the same for all the teams. For this reason, we are ready to follow the rules and we are ready to play. We are ready to do what the others are to do."

Should Sunday's game against Liverpool go ahead, it will mark Tottenham's first game since they beat Norwich 3-0 back on December 5, and Conte has admitted that the string of cancellations in the last two weeks have had a negative impact on his team's mental wellbeing.

"The morale was very down because we prepared and had a training session to play games. For three games in two weeks, three times we didn't play. The morale is down," Conte said.

"We were ready to play against Leicester [on Thursday]. We were there. before lunch they said to us the game was postponed. Then [we had] lunch, more travel, another training session.

"It's not easy to explain to the players to find the right energy when you are prepared to play a game and then the game is postponed. It's not simple and if the morale is a bit down, I think I can justify my players [because of] their environment.

"But I think we are ready to play on Sunday an important game against a really good team, an amazing team."

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