Real Madrid player ‘tests positive for coronavirus’ ahead of Man City tie

A Real Madrid player has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus and could now miss their Champions League tie with Manchester City.

Spanish radio network Onda Cero are reporting the member of Zinedine Zidane‘s squad has returned a positive Covid-19 test and is now in quarantine at home.

Reports in Spain suggest the player is 26-year-old striker Mariano Diaz but the club are yet to confirm the player’s identity. 

A Real Madrid player has tested positive for coronavirus, according to reports in Spain

The Spanish giants are due to play the second leg of their last-16 Champions League tie at the Etihad Stadium on August 7.

The player will now have to undertake a two-week quarantine period, ruling them out of the game against the Premier League side. 

It comes just over a week after Real wrapped up their LaLiga campaign, which followed a strict set of protocols to ensure the season could be concluded in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Real won the LaLiga title but face an uphill task to eliminate City for the Champions League. Pep Guardiola’s side hold a 2-1 aggregate lead from the first leg at the Bernabeu in March. 

The news comes in the wake of the ongoing row between the UK and Spanish Government’s after the UK re-imposed the requirement for travellers arriving in the UK from Spain to spend 14 days in quarantine.

It was decided that the UK should remove Spain from its list of safe countries to travel to, after fears were raised that the European country was experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections. 

Ministers decided to reimpose quarantine travel restrictions on Spain from midnight on Sunday after it emerged 10 Britons had returned from the country with coronavirus.

The UK’s chief medical office, Professor Chris Whitty, led a meeting with six senior ministers to discussing the worsening of the situation in Spain.

This raised questions over whether the game between City and Real could still go ahead but the Government has since said sporting events will remain exempt.  

But the positive test is now likely to bring the game into question, particularly if more Real players test positive in their next round of testing.

It will also ramp up the pressure on the Government, with the Spanish champions currently allowed to the travel and play despite the UK’s new quarantine rules due to exemptions surrounding their ‘bubbled environment’.  

More to follow.