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Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday announced “three new
positive cases” of Covid-19 in their squad, a day after Neymar and
two teammates were revealed to have contracted the virus, casting
serious doubt over the start of their season in
France.
“The latest Sars CoV2 tests carried out on the Paris
Saint-Germain playing staff have confirmed that there are three new
positive cases,” the French champions said in a tweet, taking the
total number of cases in their squad to six.
Neymar, Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes were the first three
to test positive, all after a recent holiday on the Spanish
Mediterranean island of Ibiza.
Their identities were confirmed to AFP by a medical source close
to the playing staff who requested anonymity for reasons of
doctor-patient confidentiality.
Sports daily L’Equipe reported that Brazilian defender
Marquinhos, Argentine striker Mauro Icardi and goalkeeper Keylor
Navas — who were also in Ibiza — were the new positive cases.
Another PSG player, midfielder Ander Herrera, is also known to
have been in Ibiza.
PSG are due to play their first game of the new Ligue 1 season
away at Lens next Thursday, September 10, but there are increasing
doubts as to whether that match will now go ahead.
The Lens game was initially due to go ahead last Saturday but
was controversially postponed to give the PSG squad a break after
their run to the Champions League final in Lisbon on August 23, in
which they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich.
That was despite PSG — by far France’s richest club — having
played just five competitive games in the preceding six months.
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Instead of playing the game, their squad were granted time off
but the club has now been left to deal with a cluster of
coronavirus cases which raise questions about why the French league
decided to postpone PSG’s match in Lens, only for so many of their
players to travel abroad on holiday during a pandemic.
PSG are also due to entertain bitter rivals Marseille on
September 13, three days after the new date for the Lens match.
The existing, strict French league (LFP) rules stipulate that
collective team training sessions must be cancelled if a club has
at least four positive tests over an eight-day period, with match
postponements possible.
And the six players, who will now be placed in isolation, will
not be allowed to even train with their teammates for eight days
under the existing health guidelines.
In recent weeks, several Ligue 1 clubs have reported positive
tests, including Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Rennes, Nantes and
Montpellier.
Marseille’s game against Saint-Etienne on August 21, which was
set to be the season opener, was postponed because of a cluster of
cases.
However, the LFP is set to introduce an amended protocol which
would ensure teams would be able to play games as long as 20
players — including at least one goalkeeper — provided negative
tests.
The last French season was ended early, with 10 rounds of
matches left unplayed, because of the health crisis, although PSG
were named champions as they led the league at the time.
AFP
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