AC Milan announce no first team virus cases

AC Milan’s Spanish forward Samu Castillejo (L) and AC Milan’s Italian defender Davide Calabria (C) celebrate as AC Milan’s Danish defender Simon Kjaer (R) looks on after AC Milan opened the scoring during the Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) semi-final first leg football match AC Milan vs Juventus Turin on February 13, 2020 at the San Siro stadium in Milan. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

AC Milan revealed on Saturday that none of their first-team footballers or staff had tested positive for coronavirus, a day after the club’s president said that some players were recovering from the disease.

In a statement, the seven-time European champions said that “based on the medical tests carried out so far on both the first team players and staff, there have not been any positive cases of COVID-19”.

Milan said that the team would continue the individual training programmes that they and other Serie A clubs had begun this week in the hope they can complete the 2019-20 this summer.

“Medical screenings will be completed for all players and staff reporting for training over the coming days,” the statement continued.

On Friday, Milan president Paolo Scaroni told local media that some of the club’s players were recovering from COVID-19, which has killed over 30,000 people in Italy.

His comments came after Fiorentina, Sampdoria and Torino confirmed positive tests for eight players.

On Thursday, Italy’s Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora had said that he was hopeful group training could resume on May 18 but on Saturday said the positive cases “were not a good sign”.

Napoli announced on Saturday that their players will be able to begin individual training sessions at the club’s facility on Sunday “following the completion of diagnostic tests”.

Sports daily the Corriere Dello Sport quoted Naples’ Federico II hospital, which oversaw the testing of Napoli players for COVID-19, as saying that “none of the first team tested positive”.

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