Chelsea Women: Ann-Katrin Berger and Drew Spence out of Wolfsburg clash after testing positive for Covid-19 | Football News

Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger and midfielder Drew Spence are not with Chelsea’s squad for their Women’s Champions League match at Wolfsburg on Thursday after testing positive for coronavirus.

Blues boss Emma Hayes revealed the news at her press conference on Wednesday ahead of the Group A contest at AOK Stadion.

When asked about precautionary measures being taken by the club amid the current coronavirus picture, Hayes said: “Just common sense.

“The realities are Omicron is everywhere and all parts of society are affected. We’ve kept the players outside, even here the players will remain in their room, just go to the training pitch, come back. Even thicker masks, more spacing on buses and on the plane. It’s a common-sense approach.

“We have the experience of being in this position before and I think we’ve learned a lot about how to socially distance appropriately – but, as we all know, you cannot prevent it, we can just minimise the impact to our squad so we can finish the football calendar year.”

Regarding whether players would be able to visit their families overseas during the forthcoming winter break, Hayes said: “We hope so. Everybody across the squad has been double-vaccinated.”

Chelsea head into their final group fixture leading the pool and will qualify for the quarter-finals as group winners if they avoid defeat.

Hayes said: “We are fully focused on qualifying, and we’ve got all the quality to do that.

“The focus, the determination, the efforts from the team I’m sure will be 100 per cent.”

The two clubs, who drew 3-3 at Kingsmeadow in October, also met in last season’s quarter-finals, with Chelsea winning 5-1 over two legs en route to finishing as runners-up.

Before that, they had been knocked out of the competition by Wolfsburg three times in successive seasons from 2015-16 onwards.

Hayes said: “We’ve had some epic games over the years, not just last season but prior to that.

“I think we know that both teams are full of goals so it will probably be an entertaining one.

“For us, we must use all of our experience and wisdom to make sure the team take care of the right details, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Chelsea have 11 points from five games, while Juventus, who host bottom side Servette on Thursday, and Wolfsburg each have eight.