and snow in places. this was sleet and snow in places. this was early on in northumberland, a few centimetres there and there could be another two to five centimetres quite widely across northern england. into wales in the midlands, we are also expecting wintry precipitation tonight. state and sofas on and icy stretches —— sleet and snow and icy conditions. we have and snow and icy conditions. we have a couple of slow—moving weather fronts pushing southwards. they will be bringing more snow, particularly to parts of northern england through this evening and tonight. flow is down through the midlands and wales. wintry showers, sleet and snow packing in across eastern scotland. there could be mist and freezing fog patch around and temperatures for most of us will be below freezing, possibly as low as —10 across the sheltered glens of scotland. a cold start on friday, ice and snow around

and a sharp frost. slippery surfaces. a dry day for scotland and northern ireland with sunshine, it will still be cold. quite a bit of cloud and that is producing rain, sleet and snow. the snow mainly across higher ground. dry with temperatures one to five celsius across the south—east. towards the weekend, a subtle change in the weather. the wind changes to a westerly direction but still a cold start to saturday. quite a lot of dry, bright weather, temperature is only two to five celsius, rain and hail snow moving on from the north—west. mostly dry for sunday and then things turn milder next week. thank you. that is all from the bbc news at six.

for his sports day.

first, sports day. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm chetan pathak coming up on tonight's programme. with a signficant coronavirus outbreak at aston villa, another fa cup game already off and both saturday's wsl matches off after positive tests, we'll have the latest on how covid is impacting football as well as the wider sporting world, what next for this summer's olympics and paralympics, as japan declares a state of emergency over covid i9 and back here what's the cost of lockdown on peoples mental and physical health, we'll bring you a special report looking at the effect on grassroots sport also coming up on tonight's programme. touring pakistan for the first time — england's women announce plans for a t20 and one day series in october alongside the men's team in karachi and

british number one since he is worried the quarantine restrictions will not allow players enough preparation to perform at their best at the australian open. hello and welcome to sportsday. welcome to the programme, thanks forjoining us. we're 2a hours away from the start of the third round of the fa cup but aston villa's match at home to liverpool is in doubt tonight after villa confirmed they've experienced a "significa nt" coronavirus outbreak at the club. it comes after one of this weekend's fa cup games was already called off, and both of saturday's women's super league fixtures have been postponed because of positive covid tests. our sports news reporter katie gornalljoins me now. we'll start with the fa cup —

what have aston villa said today ahead of their game against liverpool? they have said that after routine testing that took place on monday, they did a number of tests in each test results does not come back immediately, the player string together. the test results came back on tuesday there a significant numbers of players that tested positive and they went to isolation and a new round of tests was ordered on those tests came back, it revealed that more players and staff tested positive in the training grounds shut down. now there are discussions with the fa about whether or not they can field a team for the game against liverpool. the under 23 is perhaps, according to try and get this fixture and had and

if they can't, the fixture will have to be postponed and that is a situation the derby is having to do and wayne rooney in their first team will not be present for that against them because of the covid—i9 are breaking their training grounds, so it will be the other routines that fulfil that fixture but i supposedly set fixture is still currently going ahead. we heard earlier today that southampton has been postponed due toa number of southampton has been postponed due to a number of players tested positive for coronavirus in shrewsberry. and it is unlikely to be the last as coronavirus continues to play havoc on the fixtures list. let's move on to the women's game because both manchester city and arsenal are coming under continued criticism today — after players that went abroad tested positive for coronavirus — and now their weekend matches are off? that is correct. we are today that

the confirmation that arsenals game with aston villa has been postponed in manchester against west ham is also been postponed. and as you say, they have come under heavy criticism. and eitherfor holiday they have come under heavy criticism. and either for holiday or for business reasons during the christmas break and there has been quite the fallout from that, many team—mates that did not go have to isolate and aren't unhappy. what morally this was the right thing to do during the pandemic and it is something that i spoke to campbell about and the director for football and it was a matter for the clubs to deal with but she did not try to hide her displeasure at the whole situation and said that given the strength of the nhs is under and eve ryo ne strength of the nhs is under and everyone is under at the moment, that will have responsibility to be

role models. it is disappointing. i have not spoken to the individual players because it's not myjob to do that. they have dealt with it. but i think, when you see the pressures that everyone is under here. whether that is the national health service orjust people really struggling with mental wellness at home because the pandemic, ithink it is important that every single one of us acts as a role model. also confirming that they are considering using coin toss to decide the outcomes of the second and third rounds of the women's fa cup. those rounds of the women's fa cup. those rounds are currently defined by the government is not in the lead and so they are suspended at the moment. they said that even if they wanted to play them under elite protocols, it would be very, very difficult to do so. they did not believe that those grassroots clubs would have the means and medical staff with the

means to do the testing and she did not think the players would be safe. so, she confirmed that there possibly looking into a coin toss or some other way of deciding those games and it is looking increasingly likely that those games one not go ahead and want to be decided in another way although no decision has been made. thank you. the organisers of the tokyo olympics and paralympics say they'll be ready to host the games this summer — despite the japanese capital declaring a state of emergency over covid—i9. the rescheduled games are set to take place from the 23rd ofjuly. costs have increased by over 2 billion pounds because of measures to combat coronavirus. ben mabley is a journalist based in japan: recently with the new variance for britain and south africa, how the whole pandemic is progress in the past 12 months, it seems fanciful

but you can host a full—scale olympics in six or seven months' time. and unless somehow we can get it under control, some of the vaccine can go around the world, japan has not even approved any of the vaccines for immediate use yet. ideally, there have been the start of march, may be from late february. it is going to take a long time. obviously for officials and potential spectators to get the vaccine. and so, it seems fanciful to have a full—scale olympics, however there has been a lot of political capital spent on the olympics, notjust political capital spent on the olympics, not just in political capital spent on the olympics, notjust in the past year, but in eight years or however long it was from the build up to the games, the amount of money that has been invested into developing various other competition venues in the olympic village which have had to be left as they are but sold off

his flats afterwards and still have to be viewed as a lot of infrastructure being built for the olympics and from the governments point of view comes from the last year, the state of declaration was delayed last year in the hope that the pandemic would be taking place in 2020, but those power plays are still in play this year and they really don't want to say anything that would jeopardise or do anything that would jeopardise or do anything that would jeopardise hosting the olympics this year. but it seems difficult. onto rugby union and the head of women's performance has told us she has "concerns" about this year's women's six nations going ahead. the tournament's due to start in less than a month, but with no fixtures announced yet and plans formalised. most of the unions women's sides are not deemed "elite" by their governments

and are predominatly made up of amateur players: ido i do have concerns about how well we re i do have concerns about how well were going to be able to get through this period. i am relatively confident about how we're going to be able to deal with it but as you say, there are different challenges and different unions. and while we have more of our sport that is likely to be full—time in there for you through to manage the time, it is harder and the other unions. i think increasingly unions are getting more and more time from the players and not necessarily as far down the road as we are in terms of having that full—time programme. it is present challenges and i think the last couple of weeks that we have some more planning to do with the other unions over the next week

to ten days to give us in the plan deceiver can get there as much of it as you possibly can. if you discussions for the need to delay it? i don't know these discussions involve 7 it? i don't know these discussions involve? we had a call before christmas and with the other unions in the six nations. we will explore the possibilities and we felt at that point which is probably a month ago now, that it was the right thing to do to leave it where it was and will continue to have discussions of the next week, ten days because we recognise that in that month, the world is changed again. back here in the uk — lockdown is having an impact on grassroots sport again. for so many people its a way of keeping your mind and body active, but things are on hold for now. laura scott has been speaking to some of those affected:

ata time at a time of year when people are starting their health kick, new lockdown rules have made them more challenging for many. when the biggest shifts is the under 18 support is no longer allowed, some prominent sporting figures are worried the impact. ijust prominent sporting figures are worried the impact. i just want to look after the well—being of the kids make sure their minds are triggered towards being able to get outside of the cost of the camp. i just feel that message is not being stronger from the government, think it's important that we just remind people that the fitter you are, the more chance you survival. the rules but you can and can't do changes from nation to nation, across the uk and in england and northern ireland, tennis courts and golf courts are shut. however in scotland, they are open as noncontact sports are permitted for the up to two people from different households. exercise in england is limited whereas in

wells for example, people are encouraged to exercise as much as they like. some sports are no longer allowed to to socially distance, reducing mixing is key. when we have seen oui’ reducing mixing is key. when we have seen our pricks related to sporting venues, most of them have been around mass gatherings or social mixing rather than the sport in itself and those activities are tend to go up as people play sports in a particular environment. the government says the reopening of gyms and communities would your priority as as soon as it is safe to do so for many, that cannot come soon enough. time now for some of the day's other sport stories and phil neville is in talks to take over as manager of david beckham's mls franchise inter miami — it would mean he'd be unable to lead team gb at the tokyo olympics.