SAINTS will be without a game this weekend after Covid scuppered Friday’s Super League fixture at Leeds Rhinos.

Two members of the Leeds senior squad have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last two days, requiring them to self-isolate for 10 days.

And an additional seven players have been shown as close contacts of one or both of those players through Test and Trace.

Under the RFL’s Covid-19 protocols, a team can apply to postpone a match if seven or more senior players are unavailable as a result of Covid-19 – either through positive tests or as close contacts – and the RFL have therefore accepted Leeds’ request to postpone Friday’s fixture.

As with the Huddersfield Giants versus Wigan Warriors fixture, which has also been postponed as a result of Covid-19, the clubs will liaise with the RFL on a possible date to rearrange the match later in the season – although the Betfred Super League table will again be determined by win points percentage to allow for the possibility of not all fixtures being fulfilled.

With Saints reaching Wembley it looks unlikely that a free date can be squeezed into a calendar that is already jam-packed and features more short turnarounds than normal.

Saints’ next Super League game will be at home to Warrington on Thursday, 17 June.

Saints have a gruelling schedule through June and into July, on both sides of their Wembley appearance on July 17.

After the Warrington game they face a spell of four games in 17 days, three of those away in Yorkshire.

And they have the added complication of an England international game against the Combined All Stars on June 25 which falls on the same day as Saints’ trip to Hull KR.