William Saliba can’t play for OGC Nice against Marseille on Wednesday night, because of when the fixture was initially scheduled to take place.

There’s no doubt that Arsenal loanee William Saliba is starting to become a key player for OGC Nice. He won their Player of the Month award in January, and put in another strong performance against Paris Saint-Germain at the weekend.

Yet when Nice face Marseille on Wednesday night, Saliba won’t be involved.

The Ligue 1 fixture was initially scheduled for November, before Saliba joined Nice, yet it was postponed to 17th February after a number of Covid-19 cases in the team.

According to reports, only players who were eligible for the initial fixture can feature in the rescheduled one. That clearly doesn’t include Saliba or Jean Clair Todibo, who weren’t registered with Nice at the time.

It’s a big shame for the club, who started Saliba and Todibo as a pairing on Saturday and now have to leave both of them out. The duo can return to the team this Sunday against Metz at 14:00 GMT.