JOHN Mousinho admitted it was a relief the decision on whether Oxford United's game with Crewe Alexandra went ahead was not left down to them.

The visitors to the Kassam Stadium informed their opponents about a positive coronavirus test after they had arrived.

Rumours quickly spread to the U's dressing room, but the game was not officially called off until just over half an hour before kick-off when the decision was made by a Crewe official.

That was welcomed by the players.

Mousinho said: "No-one knew what was going on for a while.

"Thankfully it was taken out of our hands in the end, because a few players were uncomfortable with the notion of playing and I completely sympathise.

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"The Crewe players had been on the bus coming down yesterday.

"They had been in the same hotel, on the bus again this morning, they’ve been in the changing room.

"I think the sensible decision has been made.

"We would have been desperate to play, obviously, but from an objective point of view it doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do."

The United club captain said their main gripe was they believed Crewe had known about the positive result for several hours before arriving at the ground.

But even then he was surprised it took so long for the game to be officially called off.

He said: "I don’t think the player got a positive result returned at 2pm, when we were told.

"I think it was before that and we’re not particularly happy with that.

"We’re glad it did come to light, but I don’t think it’s particularly good news."

He added: "It seemed the most sensible option was to call it off and think about what you want to do afterwards.

"Whether you forfeit the game or rearrange, that stuff can be dealt with in the next couple of weeks. Why even have the debate?

"The EFL have to get protocols in place to sort this out.

"At the stage of having a positive test, just call it off. The lads were uncomfortable playing."