The Women’s Super League returned with a major shock and a six-goal thrashing on Sunday but a dramatic weekend at both ends of the table was only half as exciting – quite literally – as it should have been, with three of the scheduled six matches postponed because of Covid-19 cases.

After a three-week, scheduled break in the calendar, 40 positive tests were recorded across the WSL and Women’s Championship last week, leading to Chelsea v Tottenham, Aston Villa v Everton and West Ham v Manchester United all being called off. And in the final round of fixtures before Christmas, the same proportion of matches were postponed, meaning that Chelsea and West Ham are set to go 35 days between WSL fixtures.

Which is why it is surely now time for a return to the much more secure ‘bubble’ environments that teams were protected by last season, at least for the next few weeks until case numbers drop.

The men’s Premier League reverted back to daily testing for all players and training-ground staff in December in a bid to reduce the number of games being called off and, while the WSL did increase the rules on testing to three times a week instead of two times a week earlier in this campaign, that increase doesn’t appear to be going far enough.

Rearranging matches and delaying season finale a Doomsday scenario with Euros on the horizon

The costs of moving to daily testing would be very significant, but the costs of not doing so could be far higher, because the number of games that now need rearranging is rising steadily and delaying the end of this season is not an option anybody involved in the women’s game will want to consider, ahead of a once-in-a-generation summer which will see England hosts the Euros from 6-31 July.

It’s understood some clubs are already testing more frequently than they are required to voluntarily, while others – such as Chelsea and Reading – have confirmed that all players have been fully vaccinated. Some clubs have stricter protocols than the minimum, too – with Arsenal, for example, conducting their team tactics meetings virtually rather than in person, in a bid to reduce any spread of the virus.

And their head coach Jonas Eidevall was critical on Friday of a “lack of transparency” over postponements, while also raising an important point about the transfer window: players signed by clubs in January will now be eligible to take part in postponed games that were originally scheduled for December 19, and it’s understandable why many feel that could damage the sporting integrity of the competition.

In extreme cases, postponements are understandable and can’t be avoided, and in defence of the clubs who had outbreaks last week – Chelsea, Everton and West Ham – England is not in a lockdown like 12 months ago. The Government allowed us to mix with loved ones over the festive period without increasing restrictions in England, so no WSL players were breaking any rules by mixing with other households. Similarly, overseas players who travelled across the world to see their families were perfectly entitled to do so.

But the subsequent mass return to training over the New Year period after all that mixing made a rise in cases in the WSL inevitable. Now, to avoid several depleted months of fixtures, it’s time for stricter protocols, otherwise the UK’s highest-profile women’s sport league risks losing momentum yet again. We want to see more terrific live sport – like bottom-of-the-table Birmingham ending their 14-month winless run with a shock victory over previously unbeaten league-leaders, Arsenal.

And nobody wants to see a fixture pile-up at the end of the campaign, leading to the potential burnout of players repeatedly playing three times a week, when the biggest summer of the national team’s lives awaits. Mid-week WSL fixtures also tend to attract smaller crowds, and with attendances being such a vital area needing growth in the women’s game, fulfilling games in their weekend slots when more families can go along has to be a priority, too.