IMAGES have surfaced of the Chinese women’s national team having to train in the corridor of their hotel after being quarantined in Australia amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The team arrived in Brisbane last week – but having trained in Wuhan prior to that, have been unable to leave their secured hotel.
The Chinese women’s team were forced to train in the hotel corridorsCredit: Twitter @titan_plus
None of the 32 players or staff are believed to have shown coronavirus symptomsCredit: Twitter @titan_plus
None of the 32 players or staff have shown symptoms of the disease, but their quarantine isn’t due to end until Wednesday.
They are in Australia as part of the qualifying competition for the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.
The event was originally scheduled to take place in Wuhan – the origin city of coronavirus, before first being moved to Nanjing.
But after fears over the virus spread, the Chinese Football Association made the decision to relinquish hosting duties, with the qualifying event instead moved to Sydney.
And the coronavirus outbreak has played havoc with the team’s preparation.
In pictures obtained by Titan Sports, the players can be seen doing stretches on towels laid out in the corridor of their hotel.
China will play three matches in the qualifying event – kicking things off against Thailand on Friday – before matches with Chinese Taipei and Australia next week.
But they will have to do so without star player Wang Shuang.
The 25-year-old, who played in Europe for Paris Saint-Germain last season, returned to China to play for her hometown club Wuhan Chedu Jiangda.
But with Wuhan being in lockdown due to the outbreak, she is currently stuck in quarantine and unable to participate in the qualifiers.
In a video also posted by Titan Sports, Wang can be seen practising on a rooftop, without access to proper pitches.
The virus has also played havoc with the beginning of the domestic season in China.
Already the Chinese Super Cup between Shanghai Shenhua and Guangzhou Evergrande has had to be postponed.
And the Asian Champions League matches involving Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG and Beijing Guoan are currently up in the air.
Arrangements have been made by the Asian Football Confederation for each of the Chinese teams to play their three away games first – in the hope that the outbreak will be under control by April.
The Chinese teams are in groups with teams from Australia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.
And with Australia and Thailand already having announced bans on travellers from China, it is in doubt whether Champions League fixtures, featuring the likes of Marko Arnautovic, Oscar and Paulinho, will be able to take place at all.
Coronavirus has been contracted by over 20,000 people, with 427 so far having been killed.
The Chinese women’s national soccer team remains in quarantine in Australia due to fears of coronavirus
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
