San Diego, California – The UCLA Bruins football team will no longer play in Tuesday night's Holiday Bowl due to an uptick in Covid-19 cases amongst the players.

Days after taking a team trip to Sea World in San Diego, California, the UCLA Bruins have found themselves in quite the predicament, all thanks to an outbreak of Covid-19 that ultimately led to a shortage of players.

Fox Sports reporter Bruce Feldman was the first to break the news on Twitter, writing, "Tonight’s Holiday Bowl between UCLA & NC State is getting canceled. The Bruins D-Line room has been decimated by Covid issues."

Citing unnamed sources, Feldman followed up by sharing that the team was down to two interior defensive linemen on Monday, but intended on using a linebacker as a back-up until they encountered "more Covid issues today."

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Soon after, UCLA Football confirmed Feldman's reports in a tweet, stating, "The UCLA football team is unable to participate in tonight’s San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl due to Covid-19 protocols within the Bruins’ program."

While the university didn't divulge any further details about the situation at hand, the timing is rather peculiar.

This past Saturday, just three days prior to pulling out of the Holiday Bowl, the UCLA football team took a trip to Sea World in San Diego, even posting a video showcasing numerous unmasked players wandering through the theme park.

The news of the bowl game's cancellation serves as a serious blow to the seniors who were looking forward to playing their last game as a part of the UCLA football team.

In a statement, UCLA's athletic Director, Martin Jarmond, said, "We are deeply disappointed for our young men in the football program that worked extremely hard for this opportunity. My heart goes out to them."

This marks the fifth bowl game to be canceled this season due to Covid-19 cases. Other bowl games that were canceled included the Arizona Bowl, Fenway Bowl, Military Bowl, and the Hawaii Bowl.

Two other bowl games – the Gator Bowl and the Sun Bowl – were forced to find replacement teams amid a surge in Covid-19 cases amongst players.

Texas A&M was forced to pull out of the Gator Bowl due to an uptick in cases. The team was replaced by Rutgers, who will face off against Wake Forest on Friday.

The University of Miami had to back out of the Sun Bowl for the same reasons. Thus, the team was replaced by Central Michigan, who will now take on Washington State on Friday.