London, Dec 23 (IANS): Following the rise in cases of COVID-19 in the teams, the Premier League has decided to postpone the Liverpool vs Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Watford games scheduled for Boxing Day.

"Following postponement requests from Leeds United and Watford as a result of COVID-19, the Premier League Board met this morning and regrettably agreed to call off the two affected clubs' Boxing Day fixtures," the Premier League said in a statement on Thursday.

"The Board today was able to make its decisions in advance of Boxing Day to give clarity to clubs and their supporters. We apologise for the inconvenience and disruption caused to those fans' festive plans," it added.

The Premier League concluded that Leeds will not be able to fulfill their fixture this weekend due to the number of players with COVID-19, injuries and illness. The club's training ground has also been closed after consultation with the UK Health Security Agency and the Premier League.

Watford, who have already had two games called off this month, continue to have an insufficient number of players to field a team, the League said. The number of Premier League games called off due to the pandemic is now up to 12 in the last two weeks.