After a positive corona test: Five DFB national players in quarantine – including Joshua Kimmich

Five professionals have to be quarantined
DFB national players tested positive for Corona

A German national soccer player tested positive for the corona virus. The training of the national team was canceled at short notice, instead a total of five professionals have to be in quarantine. The DFB team will play against Liechtenstein in the World Cup qualification on Thursday.

Preparations for the last two international matches of the year have been severely disrupted. A player from the German national soccer team has tested positive for the corona virus, four other professionals have to be in quarantine and are therefore likely to be absent from the two international matches this week. The DFB announced that “the national player who tested positive for Covid-19” was immediately isolated, but was “fully vaccinated and currently symptom-free”. “In addition to him, on the instructions of the health department, four other players who were classified as Category 1 contacts despite negative tests in the context of the contact tracing, must be quarantined in the quarters of the DFB team.”

According to information from the “Bild” newspaper, it should be defender Niklas Süle from FC Bayern. At first it was only said that one of the record champions’ players was affected. For the games against Liechtenstein (Thursday, 8.45 p.m.) and in Armenia (Sunday, 6 p.m. / both on RTL and in the live ticker on ntv.de), national coach Hansi Flick had appointed a total of eight professionals from Munich: Manuel Neuer, Niklas Süle, Serge Gnabry , Leon Goretzka, Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Müller, Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sané. According to information from RTL / ntv, Süle traveled to the team hotel together with Gnabry, Kimmich, Neuer and Musiala. It remains to be seen whether this quartet will have to be quarantined in addition to the defensive player who tested positive.

The “Bayerischer Rundfunk” reports that the four players classified as contact persons are Gnabry, Kimmich, Musiala and Karim Adeyemi. When asked by ntv.de, the Wolfsburg health department referred to the Lower Saxony Corona Separation Ordinance of November 1, 2021. According to this, the following rules apply: At least 14 days of quarantine are required for the person who tested positive, the requirement for contact persons is as follows: Without symptoms and without a negative test, ten days of isolation are provided, with a negative PCR test you can get yourself back to five days freestest, with a negative rapid antigen test after seven days. According to the ordinance, there is no quarantine as a contact person if the persons have been “vaccinated or recovered” and “no symptoms are present”. That would mean that the quartet either has symptoms or is neither vaccinated nor recovered – or that the Wolfsburg Health Department has set stricter standards.

Training canceled at short notice

The DFB has so far left it open which player had the positive corona test. National team director Oliver Bierhoff is quoted in the association’s announcement as saying that he wishes “the player who tested positive a speedy recovery” and “that he remains symptom-free.”

The training scheduled for 11 a.m. this morning has been canceled at short notice, the players should instead keep fit individually in the hotel. “All other players in the national team, who, like the coaching team and the entire team behind the team, all tested negative, are preparing for the two World Cup qualifiers as planned,” said the DFB. To what extent the hosting of the two final games in the World Cup qualification could be endangered initially remained open. Most recently, games were no longer canceled in the case of singular infections. The national team has already qualified for the World Cup.

Most recently, the statement by Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich that he was not vaccinated caused heated public discussions about the role model function of national soccer players in the Corona crisis. A few days earlier, Kimmich’s club trainer Julian Nagelsmann had been infected with the coronavirus, but from his quarantine campaigned emphatically for the vaccination: “You can ask in the clinics what the course is like if you are not vaccinated.” He only returned to his team last week after the two-week isolation was over. Last year, İlkay Gündoğan from Manchester City made impressive statements about his suffering after his infection and warned against being too lax.

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