Atletico Madrid Women return five positive tests for coronavirus ahead of Barcelona tie
Uefa is monitoring Atlético Madrid Women after the club returned five positive coronavirus tests just days before the Women’s Champions League is due to restart, Telegraph Sport understands.
The competition is scheduled to resume in Bilbao and San Sebastián, Spain, on Friday August 21, with Atlético playing Barcelona behind closed doors in a one-legged quarter-final tie at San Mamés. The tournament, due to take place over nine days, will conclude with the final in San Sebastián on August 30th.
The club initially suspended training following a first positive test from one player on Friday August 9, stopping all activity at the training base the women’s team share with the club’s youth sides. The Centro Deportivo Wanda Alcalá de Henares training complex — which comprises several full-size pitches and a main stadium seating 2,700 — is currently being disinfected, and all players, coaches and staff have entered quarantine.
A statement the club released on Tuesday evening then confirmed that a further four players had since tested positive for the virus. All five players are asymptomatic, the club said.
Uefa is now understood to be monitoring the situation and has made contact with the club and health authorities — but the club’s participation in the final eight is currently unaffected, it is understood.
A statement from the club said: "Atlético de Madrid Femenino has been forced to maintain the suspension of its training sessions and the confinement of all its players, coaching staff and assistants after the appearance of four more positive cases in the PCR tests carried out after the positive confirmed last Friday that led to the stoppage of its sporting activity.
“In addition, the club has decided, as a preventive measure, the temporary cessation of all activity and the closure of the Wanda Alcalá de Henares Sports Center, which has also been disinfected.
"The five positive cases are asymptomatic and isolated in their respective homes and in continuous communication with the club's medical services, which carry out individual control of each one of them, following the guidelines of the Covid protocol and the monitoring of the University of Navarra Clinic. The five positive cases will undergo new tests in the coming days, as established by the health protocol in these cases."
