West Ham United manager David Moyes and players Issa Diop and Josh Cullen have returned positive tests for COVID-19, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.

The club's medical staff were informed of the test results as the team were preparing for Tuesday's League Cup third round match against Hull City at London Stadium.

"All three, who are asymptomatic, will now follow Public Health England and Premier League guidelines and protocols," the club said in a statement, adding that the manager and both players immediately left the stadium and have returned home.

The club statement added that West Ham had offered to conduct COVID-19 tests for the Hull City team before the match but the visitors declined.

French defender Diop and Ireland midfielder Cullen were replaced by Harrison Ashby and Jack Wilshere respectively in the starting lineup around 45 minutes before kick-off.

The match started as scheduled with assistant manager Alan Irvine taking charge of West Ham.

Sporting stadiums around UK remain empty due to the pandemic as government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors.

British sport faces a bleak winter, and for some a fight for survival in the cold months ahead, after the postponement of plans to allow a limited number of fans back into stadiums from October.

What had been seen as a glimmer of light at the end of a tunnel now looks like another long stretch of darkness for clubs and sports already in crisis-management after being forced to do without their ticketing income stream.

The government had planned to allow 25-33 percent capacities from October 1 but Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that was being postponed as part of measures to tackle a second wave of COVID-19.

At a meeting on Tuesday, sports governing bodies in UK – including those from football, rugby, cricket, Formula 1 and horse racing – were told to prepare for no spectators throughout the winter.

And the ban on fans will be kept under review, said officials.