STEVE CLARKE’S plans for tonight’s friendly with Holland are in chaos after SIX players were ruled out over Covid-19 fears.
Midfielder John Fleck was KO’d yesterday after testing positive for Coronavirus.
Now another half-dozen players have been taken out of the squad as a precaution.
Stars David Marshall, John McGinn, Che Adams, Stephen O’Donnell, Grant Hanley and Nathan Patterson will miss the clash.
They have stayed at the Scotland camp in Spain while the rest of the group flew to Portugal for tonight’s bounce game with the Dutch.
The bombshell decision was taken after Scotland medics did a risk assessment on the back of Fleck’s diagnosis.
None of the six players have tested positive for Covid -19 and aren’t considered definite close contacts.
But it’s been decided they were ‘in the vicinity’ of Fleck for long enough to potentially be at risk – and the advice given by medics is they are ultra cautious.
It means Clarke will be without seven key players for the vital Euros warm-up.
Sheffield United star Fleck has no symptoms but has been ordered to stay away from his team-mates until he gets TWO all-clear tests.
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But Clarke hopes Fleck is soon back training with the squad as the midfielder will continue fitness work on his own.
Clarke revealed: “We don’t know how it happened. But we’re 99.9 per cent sure that John would have had it before he came to Spain, with the incubation period.
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“Hopefully it’s a one-off and an isolated case.
“I’ve spoken to John, he’s fine and has no symptoms. We’ll try and make his time stuck in his room as good as possible for him.
“We’ll get an exercise bike into his room and keep him moving. We’ll look after him, that’s all we can do.
“But we don’t really want that situation to be the big story. The big story is that we’re in camp and had a fantastic time up until now.
“The training has been good, everything has been top notch.
“The only thing we haven’t really controlled very well is the weather.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
