ROSS County versus Hibs has been postponed for a SECOND time this week - with the Easter Road side's weekend match against Livingston also called off.
The Edinburgh club have been hit with a Covid-19 outbreak, meaning the Premiership fixture has been cancelled just 24-hours prior to kick-off.
The SPFL have agreed to rearrange the match for another alternative date after Saturday's original scheduled fixture was called off with less than FOUR hours until it kicked off.
Hibs have five players and a member of the coaching staff self isolating, alongside an additional five first teamers out injured.
Jack Ross' side were understood to be unhappy at being forced to fulfil the fixture so soon after the initial postponement.
Several U18 players were on standby for the rearranged trip to Dingwall.
County were fuming at the late call-off first time round and are to press the league body for compensation having lost a substantial amount in terms of lost hospitality costs, stewarding and club television costs.
But Wednesday's game is off again, with Livingston now also involved.
An SPFL statement reads: "Hibernian’s cinch Premiership matches away to Ross County (Wednesday November 3) and Livingston (Saturday November 6) have been postponed.
"Hibernian requested that the SPFL postpone the fixtures as, due to further positive Covid cases and close contacts, they do not have sufficient players available to fulfil the fixtures."
An SPFL spokesman said: “After reviewing the information provided by Hibernian, their cinch Premiership matches against Ross County and Livingston this week have been postponed. New dates for both games will be announced as soon as possible.”
A statement from the Hibees reads: "Our cinch Premiership games against Ross County and Livingston have been postponed following further positive Covid tests.
"The games, which were due to take place on Wednesday 3 November and Saturday 6 November respectively, have now been postponed following discussions with the SPFL, NHS Lothian, and the clubs.
"This decision was made after a significant number of first team players, staff, and development squad players tested positive over the last few days. By following all the guidelines, we wouldn’t be able to field a team for either game, which has led us to no other alternative than to postpone the fixtures.
"The individuals will not be named due to medical confidentiality and those affected will now self-isolate in-line with the protocol.
"We are in constant discussions with NHS Lothian to reduce the spread of Covid and HTC has subsequently been closed for a deep clean. We have also undergone an internal investigation regarding the outbreak and are confident in our processes.
"We will continue to take every precaution necessary as the safety of our players and staff is of absolute importance.
"We would also like to apologise to our supporters who have made plans to attend the re-arranged fixture at Ross County. We made our thoughts incredibly clear to the SPFL before the fixture was re-arranged, and it took them until today, after more positive tests were recorded and several meetings, to make the right decision, which we thank them for.
"We will put out further details regarding away tickets purchased for both Ross County and Livingston in due course.
"We’d like to thank all our supporters for their understanding."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here