A member of Sevilla’s first-team squad has tested positive
for COVID-19, the club said Wednesday while announcing it was suspending
training pending the result of further tests.
The Spanish side are due to face Roma in Germany next week
in a single-leg fixture in the last 16 of the Europa League.
Sevilla said the case was discovered following tests
conducted by the club on Sunday, and the player concerned is
“asymptomatic, in good health and is isolated at home”.
In a statement, Sevilla added they had “temporarily
suspended the team’s training sessions and carried out disinfection tasks in the
facilities”.
The club has carried out two further rounds of tests on
the rest of the squad and staff following the initial case.
“In the first one, all the tests carried out have
been negative. The results of the second tests, which have been
carried out today, will be known this Thursday morning,” Sevilla said.
The team plans to return to training on Thursday with
individual sessions if all results from the second batch of tests come back
negative.
The latter stages of the Europa League will be completed
with a straight knockout mini-tournament in Germany, as a result of the
coronavirus pandemic. The competition was suspended in March.
The final will be played in Cologne on August 21. The
quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played as one-off ties with Cologne,
Duisburg, Duesseldorf and Gelsenkirchen all hosting games.
Before that, all last-16 ties must be completed. Only six
of the eight first-leg matches were played in March. The other two ties —
Inter v Getafe and Sevilla v Roma — will be decided as one-off matches on
neutral ground in Germany.