RALPH Hasenhuttl has praised Saints keeping their COVID-19 rules “as tough as possible so that we minimise the risk,” after the club completed another round of testing with no blots.

News came on Monday that Manchester United have shut their training ground for 24 hours and are in doubt over whether their clash with Brentford will go ahead this week following positive tests among staff and players.

Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur had their matches with Rennes in Europe and Brighton in the Premier League postponed last weekend following an extreme circumstance of cases.

Fans that attend games will now have to produce evidence of a COVID-19 passport, attained via a negative test or complete vaccination courses, after the Government introduced new legislation.

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And speaking ahead of Saints’ visit to Crystal Palace on Wednesday, the Austrian boss was asked if he had any concerns for his own club as a new Omicron variant continues to spread prompting Government action.

Daily Echo: Manchester United's trip to Brentford could be in doubt this week (Pic: PA)Manchester United's trip to Brentford could be in doubt this week (Pic: PA)

He responded: “Not really, as I have told them last week the situation in our club is not different to the beginning of the pandemic.

“We try to keep our rules as high or as tough as possible so that we minimise the risk. We have still only a certain amount of people coming into the this building, we try to avoid every risk that we can because of the situation we are in at the moment.

“We can only control what is in this building, we cannot control what is happening at home with the players,” Hasenhuttl admitted.

“But the feeling I have, and this is maybe the reason we are so far coming through this, is that the players are trying to minimise their social contact and everything.

Daily Echo: Spurs were not in action at the weekend following an outbreak (Pic: PA)Spurs were not in action at the weekend following an outbreak (Pic: PA)

“I think this is the reason why we didn’t have this issue, the biggest issue I see is kids bringing it home from school because this is something we can hardly avoid but we are a young team, not so many players with children so maybe this also helps.

“Like in the last weeks we have no cases and hopefully this continues.”

Nathan Redmond recently missed out on the victory over Aston Villa - Saints' last victory this season - after he tested positive for the virus in the build-up to kick-off. 

Hasenhuttl was also asked about the vaccination status of his players, and he added: “Yeah we are not so bad I think.

“I don’t know the exact numbers of percentage of people at the club but I think meanwhile nearly everyone is vaccinated.”