Tottenham Hotspur has been hit by coronavirus as the club announced that the only confirmed case in the 5th round of mass testing in the Premier League is a member of the club. The 5th round of testing was carried out on Monday and Tuesday.
While confirming the result on Wednesday, Tottenham Hotspur said in a statement that the individual at the club who had contracted the virus would not be named. The club, however, said that the person would go into self-isolation and would be tested again in a later date.
“We have been informed by the Premier League that we have received one positive test for COVID-19 following the latest round of testing at our Training Centre”, the club’s statement said. “Due to medical confidentiality, the individual’s name will not be disclosed.
“They are currently asymptomatic and will now self-isolate for seven days, in line with Premier League protocol, before undergoing further testing.
“We shall continue to strictly adhere to the Premier League‘s Return to Training protocol, which ensures our Training Centre remains a safe and virus-free working environment.”
The result will be heartbreaking for the Premier League that must have thought that they were winning the war against the virus. Recall that when they carried out the fourth round of mass testing, it returns no positive result, unlike the first three rounds which returned a total of 12 positives.
The 5th round is coming days after the 20 clubs in the Premier League started different forms of contact training in anticipation of the restart of the season on June 17 behind closed doors.
This latest result will certainly force the Premier League to continue with their policy of testing players and staff on a twice-weekly basis until the 2019-2020 season is finally over.
Amid coronavirus positive result in Tottenham Hotspur, David Moyes Calls for Friendlies
The manager of West Ham United David Moyes said his team needs a couple of friendlies in order to have match fitness ahead of the restart of the season. Recall that none of the players kicked a ball in a competitive match since March 13; hence, it will be difficult to ascertain their fitness level.
But such a plan might be difficult especially now that a Premier League club based in the same city as they, have a member who just tested positive for the dreaded virus.
“If you consider this a pre-season period, most teams would have had quite a few friendlies under their belts”, Moyes told Sky Sports. “All the clubs are not going to get game practice
“I think us getting the opportunity to do that gives us a chance to try and set up a couple of games behind closed doors if we can do that.
“All of it is subject to protocols. We need to make sure everything is correct before we even arrange the games. Of course, we are not going to ask teams to travel and we are not going to travel. We don’t want anything to go wrong while we are leading up to the start of the Premier League.”
The idea of having a couple of friendlies before June 17 could be a good risk to take before the bigger risk which is the full restart of the season because it will enable the clubs and the Premier League to test-run everything needed to guaranty safety in and around the stadiums.
