Four Real Madrid players test positive for COVID-19

FILE–Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale. REUTERS/Javier Barbancho

MADRID–Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale, Marco Asensio, Andriy Lunin and Rodrygo have tested positive for COVID-19 as well as assistant coach Davide Ancelotti, the club said in a statement on Thursday.

The club postponed their first-team training session from Thursday morning to the afternoon to allow them to test players and staff.

It is the third announcement from the club in two days after Luka Modric and Marcelo also tested positive.

Real did not say if they were suffering any symptoms, but they have been moved into quarantine in line with Spain’s protocols and will miss Sunday’s league game against Cadiz.

Under Spanish government protocols, the seven, who are all vaccinated, will have to stay in quarantine until they test negative.

A source close to LaLiga told Reuters that, for now, the league is not considering postponing Real’s game against Cadiz.

The league requires a minimum of five first team players to be available for a game to be played, with the rest of the matchday squad made up of players from the second team.

“The latest LaLiga tracking with players and staff shows that 97.1% are either fully vaccinated (double Pfizer or single Janssen) or have antibodies (92.8 vaccinated, 4.3 antibodies),” the source said.

The number of COVID-19 cases is growing fast across Europe, with an increasing impact on sport.

After shuting down their entire basketball team for a week because an outbreak of the virus, Valencia confirmed four cases in their football team on Monday, including their head coach and two players.