A Real Madrid player Mariano Diaz has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus and will miss their Champions League tie with Manchester City.
The 26-year-old is said to have had no contact with other players and staff, with his being the only positive test recorded after an initial round of screening.
Real announced via a statement on the club’s official website “After the Covid-19 tests carried out individually on our first team yesterday by the Real Madrid medical services, our player Mariano has given a positive result.
“The player is in perfect health and complying with the sanitary isolation protocol at home.”
Mariano is set play no part against City, but Madrid will be hoping that a fixture in England goes ahead as planned.
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.
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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.
A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said ‘exempted individuals will live and work in controlled “bubbled” environments behind closed doors’ which applies to ‘sports stars, event officials, coaches, medics, mechanics and incoming members of the media.’
UEFA have also confirmed that the fixture is expected to go ahead as planned.
