BEN KENSELL insists Hibs have done nothing wrong as the club deals with a coronavirus outbreak among players and staff.

The Easter Road chief executive says he has every confidence that all rules and protocols set out by the powers that be have been followed to the letter of the law by all who represent the Edinburgh outfit.

A total of 15 players have tested positive for Covid-19, with a further four self-isolating having been deemed close contacts.

Members of Jack Ross’ coaching staff are also isolating at home following the outbreak.

Kensell officially closed the Hibs Training Centre building on Tuesday after more cases of the virus were confirmed among the first team and development squads.

Saturday’s match against Ross County was postponed with just four hours to go until kick-off because of the outbreak.

The SPFL rescheduled the match for Wednesday evening – something that angered the Easter Road club due to the short turnaround to get a competitive squad together, as well as for their fans and their travelling arrangements.

However, on Tuesday night the game was called off for a second time after more coronavirus cases were confirmed by Hibs. The weekend match against Livingston was then postponed as a result too.

Kensell revealed that with the outbreak of Covid and their lengthy injury list, Hibs only have eight fit players who are over the permitted age of 18-years-old.

But the CEO knows the club couldn’t have done anything more to prevent the current situation and insists he wouldn’t change anything if he were able to rewind the clock.

He said: “There’s an exchange of information around close contacts, around positives and there’s clearly a concern for both clubs.

“Once you have a positive lateral flow, you need to do PCR and ensure that is hasn’t become widespread across the whole of the group.

“At that stage, you can’t be absolutely certain. Therefore, all of the close contacts have to be informed, the wider group needs to be informed, Ross County need to be informed and the SPFL need to be informed.

“The rescheduled nature of the fixture was something that led to some debate in the aftermath because we were still managing the outbreak. So I think that was hasty at best.

“From my perspective, we should have allowed that process to have gone through to understand the magnitude of the problem.

“We travelled up appropriately – it’s not as though we all went on one coach, there were two coaches. We stayed away the night before, as you would when it’s so far away from Edinburgh and we tested all week.

“We found a few cases and we isolated those cases. We have one of the best medical departments in the country so it’s hard to know what we could have done better when, speaking with professionals in NHS Lothian, they back up what we’ve done and point out things we should look out for moving forward. The list of what we did do was comprehensive and the other one was fairly limited.

“When players are within a bubble they’re in that bubble for the next 24 hours or so, having been tested and thinking everything is fine. That is the challenge with this virus because, when tested, everyone is absolutely fine.

“For whatever reason, though, it can then rip through a squad very quickly. But the way that we have dealt with this is something we would like to share with other clubs and I’d be happy to pick up the ‘phone to anyone who wants that help.

“In all truth, lots of other clubs have been through it and some will probably go through it again.”

The chief executive revealed that there has been no threat of sanctions being imposed by the SPFL for the outbreak which has led to the postponement of the fixtures.

And the Englishman insists it would be plainly wrong if there were, pointing out that it would diminish the sporting integrity of the Premiership.

He said: “No and there should be no talk about that. This is not a case of a battle with anyone.

“It is purely a case of sharing information and the right outcome has been found in the end.”

Kensell was also keen to highlight that a high percentage of the Hibs players and coaching staff are fully vaccinated.

The chief revealed that the four indirectly affected players were being forced to isolate because they were deemed close contacts of those who tested positive, but it was also down to their vaccination status.

And without disclosing personal health information, he confirmed that the number of those not fully vaccinated at Hibs stands at ‘less than a handful’.

He added: “What we do is within our plan on the coach we look to separate, segregate, whatever you want to call it, so we have that in place.

“But it is not a case of people travelling on different coaches depending on their status.

“And once again, that comes down to their personal choice.

“It’s probably worth me pointing out, though, we’re not talking about big numbers who are unvaccinated.

“You’re talking not even a handful. A high percentage of our squad have been vaccinated, a high percentage.”