Spain national team might end up becoming less competitive in the forthcoming Euro 2020 which will kick-off on June 11, 2021. The team is currently battling with the outbreak of the dreaded coronavirus pandemic.
On June 6, 2021, FC Barcelona star, Sergio Busquets was the first Spanish player in the Euro 2020 squad to test positive for Covid-19, barely five days to the kickoff of the competition.
Hence, most of the players and staff who had close contact with Busquets who was supposed to captain the team in the absence of Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid had to go into isolation to avoid the further spread of the virus.
Barely two days after it was announced that Sergio Busquets is out of the Euro 2020, Diego Llorente was confirmed to be the second player in the squad that contracted the virus.
Due to the fear that the virus might become a widely spread one, Spain national team had to suspend training two days before the kick-off of Euro 2020.
According to an announcement from the Spanish FA (RFEF), both Busquets and Llorente have left the national team camp. The sadist part is that all the players are left with no choice but to train individually until further notice.
Spain’s opener in Euro 2020 will be on Monday, June 14 against a Sweden side that is also struggling with the outbreak of coronavirus amid the country’s Euro 2020 squad. Two Swedish players – Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg tested positive for the virus recently which forced the national team to come up with Covid-19 rules to protect the rest of the squad.
But in Spain’s case, things have been so difficult for the Spanish team that their under-21 team had to be used to execute a friendly match against Lithuania which suppose to be Spain’s preparatory game ahead of the European Championship. The friendly match ended 4-0 in favor of Spain.
Things have also gotten worst that the Spanish FA had to put in place a 17-man parallel squad as a backup plan in case the outbreak of the Covid-19 in the camp of Spain becomes out of hand.
The parallel squad is made of 11 players from the under-21 squad that defeated Lithuania 4-0 on Tuesday in Madrid. They are all training far apart from the country’s senior team.
Spain’s backup squad include Alvaro Fernandez, Oscar Mingueza, Marc Cucurella, Bryan Gil, Juan Miranda, Gonzalo Villar, Alejandro Pozo, Brahim Diaz, Martin Zubimendi, Yeremy Pino and Javi Puado, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Raul Albiol, Rodrigo Moreno, Pablo Fornals, Carlos Soler and Brais Mendez.
As it stands, if the virus continues to spread among the 26-man squad coach Luis Enrique has been preparing for the European Championship, the Spanish FA might have no choice but to replace the 26-man squad with the country’s backup squad.
Recall that the European football governing body, UEFA, has given all the teams that will participate in Euro 2020 the opportunity to replace any play that is critically ill or contract Covid-19. However, that can only happen between now and Saturday, June 12.
🚨 COMUNICADO OFICIAL | Diego Llorente
— Selección Española de Fútbol (@SeFutbol) June 8, 2021
La RFEF lamenta comunicar que el futbolista internacional Diego Llorente ha resultado positivo en los últimos test PCR realizados esta mañana en la concentración de la Selección en Las Rozas.
ℹ️ Más información: https://t.co/PnD4OaOazC pic.twitter.com/QmMlj5U6sW
