AN UNNAMED Borussia Monchengladbach star has tested positive for coronavirus and been immediately quarantined just TEN DAYS before the Bundesliga season is slated to restart.
German football has been on hold since March 11 but the season is set to continue in less than two weeks.
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Two members of the Borussia Monchengladbach team have tested positive for coronavirus
Gladbach plan to place cardboard cut outs of fans in the stadium when games resume behind closed doors
However, following a spate of positive tests and a controversial stunt from Hertha Berlin star Salomon Kalou, the season-restart may be in jeopardy.
Two members of the Monchengladbach team – including one player and one member of staff – have recorded positive tests, according to reports.
Clubs in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 have been testing their players this week ahead of a potential return.
German football is hoping to get back to business on May 15 – with plans in mind to combat the empty-stadium dilemma, with Monchengladbach charging fans £17 to have a cardboard cutout of themselves placed in the stands.
But the news out of Gladbach is just the latest in a series of blows, with Bundesliga 2 outfit FC Erzgebirge Aue sending all players and staff home after a positive test for Covid-19 was recorded.
SECOND WAVE?
Germany has been easing its lockdown in the past week after faring better than its European neighbours following an aggressive policy of Covid-19 mass testing.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to announce the reopening of schools and shops – as well as football’s return – on Wednesday.
However, it may not last long, after it was revealed Germany are on the brink of a second-wave of coronavirus – with fears the lockdown measures may have been eased to soon.
On Friday, infections reached a five-day high and there was a huge spike in the daily death toll.
Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 teams have already returned to training with squads working in small groups.
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But even before Tuesday’s news, ten players across the top two divisions had tested positive from 1,724 tests, including three from Cologne and an “inconclusive result” from Stuttgart.
German chiefs may now feel the need to consider pushing the season back further – having already done so by one week.
Most sides have nine matches left of the league season with Bayern Munich – whose players all tested negative – four points clear of Borussia Dortmund at the top.
Salomon Kalou sings ‘corona song’, ignores social distancing rules and moans about pay cuts in shock video
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
