Pogba is biggest star to test positive as Covid spike hits Premier League IRFU’S RELIEF

No new cases means inter-pro can go ahead FOOTBALL Page 53

LEINSTER’S Pro14 clash with Ulster on Saturday night has been given the green light after the latest round of Covid-19 testing of players and staff at both provinces produced zero positive results.

That development will come as a massive relief to the IRFU after a cluster of eight cases was identified in Ulster’s academy squad on Wednesday.

All training was halted at the team’s base in Belfast as a precaution, but Dan McFarland’s squad returned to action yesterday in preparation for this weekend’s derby meeting.

The IRFU confirmed that eight Ulster academy players have tested positive for Covid-19. The players in question and all individuals identified as potential close contacts have all commenced self isolation. That group included one senior player who received a negative test result but will continue to self-isolate in line with public health advice.

To date, there have been 1070 tests conducted across the professional player and staff group

PAUL POGBA has become the highestprofile footballer to contract coronavirus, with the Premier League heading for chaos a fortnight before the new season.

The central midfielder was omitted from the France squad after testing positive alongside Tottenham’s Tanguy Ndombele on arrival at the camp.

Pogba, who has spent the off-season with family and friends in London, is understood to have been symptomatic and there are concerns he may miss the birth of his second child.

The 27-year-old must now selfisolate for at least 10 days and will be absent when Manchester United begin pre-season training.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team are due to report back to Carrington on Wednesday and the manager’s preparations have been significantly affected by a troubling week at Old Trafford.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka will miss the start of training because he needs to self-isolate for two weeks on his return from a holiday to Dubai.

United’s first Premier League match is scheduled against Crystal Palace on September 19 but Solskjaer has several issues to contend with — not least the circumstances surrounding Harry Maguire’s holiday and subsequent 21-month suspended prison sentence after an altercation on the Greek island of Mykonos.

Pogba’s positive test was the latest in a string of complications for the United boss. France manager Didier Deschamps broke the news yesterday when he said: ‘I’ve completed, at the very last minute, a change in the list. Paul Pogba was on the list but unfortunately for him he carried out a test yesterday which was returned as positive this morning.’

United said in a statement: ‘Everybody at United wishes him a speedy recovery ahead of the new season.’

The club maintained that all players will abide by Government regulations surrounding Covid-19, including quarantine periods if necessary.

United are confident that stars who have travelled back to home countries which are not on the travel corridor list will still be able to return to Manchester as normal following the international break.

Anthony Martial and Victor Lindelof are thought to have spent time in France and Sweden respectively before linking up with their national sides. But the elite sport exemption is believed to kick in once they enter the bubble of their national teams.

The news of Pogba’s positive test came after a Covid-19 outbreak at Chelsea had emerged, with six players returning positive results and a further two in quarantine. Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Christian Pulisic and Fikayo Tomori are all understood to be in self-isolation.

The Premier League have no concerns surrounding the new campaign starting on September 12 as planned but the increased number of positive results will be a worry for them.

REX DURING the difficult, strange games of Project Restart last month, a trip to the football served as a reminder that something about the world remained very different. The shops, bars and cafes were operating almost normally but at the football — a place of temperature checks, empty seats and sterilised corner flags — the reality of life with Covid-19 came crashing back in. It still seems a miracle that we got last season done at all. It took a rare combined effort by the clubs of our top two divisions, the Government, the football authorities and scientists to drag it over the finishing line. We owed a debt to the players, too. A minority did not do so well during the endless weeks of lockdown. Some could not manage to play by life’s new and onerous rules. But most did. Most saw the bigger picture, read the instructions from their clubs and were able to return fit, well and available. Sadly, that impressive capacity for discipline has not endured. Positive virus results are now running through the Premier League at an alarming rate. Just like swathes of the rest of the country, it seems football is about to pay for the mistaken belief that the virus has disappeared. It would be wrong to castigate Concern: Paul Pogba must now self-isolate for 10 days

GETTY IMAGES Cover-up: Paul Pogba before his positive test