Ilkay Gundogan has become Manchester City‘s third football star to contract coronavirus after the club’s winger Riyad Mahrez and defender Aymeric Laporte tested positive for the virus earlier this month.
Manchester City confirmed a few hours ago that Ilkay Gundogan was the lasted player to test positive for the virus in a statement issued 9 hours before the kick-off of their first Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers slated for 8:15 pm (UK time).
Gundogan has been a very important part of Pep Guardiola’s team since he joined the club from Borussia Dortmund in 2016 for just 27 million euros. Last season, he played 50 matches in all competitions which shows the amount of trust Guardiola has in the 29-year-old Germany international.
Though he is not a high scoring midfielder and assists provider like his club’s teammate, Kevin De Bruyne, Gundogan provided 5 assists last season and scored 5 goals. Besides these attributes, Guardiola always banks on him to do the dirty work in the middle of the pack when Manchester City are under attack from the opposing team.
This is what Manchester City will miss in all the games the club will play from tonight until the next 10 days because the German playmaker will have to self-isolate throughout that period.
“Manchester City FC can confirm that Ilkay Gundogan has tested positive for COVID-19”, the club statement read.
“Ilkay is now observing a 10-day period of self-isolation in accordance with Premier League and UK Government protocol on quarantine.”
This means that Ilkay Gundogan will miss tonight’s match against Wolves, miss Thursday’s Carabao Cup game against Bournemouth, and Sunday’s league game against Leicester City.
His other two teammates who contracted the virus earlier, Riyad Mahrez and Aymeric Laporte, have fully recovered and have returned to full training with the rest of the team. However, Laporte is not likely to feature in tonight’s game but Mahrez would likely start the game.
NEWS | @IlkayGuendogan has tested positive for Covid-19.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 21, 2020
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re https://t.co/ObJdA4ncov
Arturo Vidal close to sealing Inter Milan move
Meanwhile, Barcelona’s midfielder, Arturo Vidal is on the verge of completing his move to Italian Serie A side, Inter Milan. The 33-year-old midfielder is currently in Italy and he has undergone medical with the Italian side.
It is expected that Inter Milan will announce that they have sealed the transfer deal in the next 24 hours. If that is done today or tomorrow, it means that the Chilean joined the club 4 days before Inter Milan‘s first game in the 2020-2021 season against Fiorentina on Saturday.
