3rd Brighton first-teamer tests positive

LONDON: A third first-team player from Brighton & Hove Albion tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, the Premier League club’s chief executive Paul Barber has confirmed.

Two Brighton players had contracted the novel coronavirus in March and April and the latest positive result could cast doubts on the Premier League’s plans to resume the season that has been suspended due to the pandemic.

Brighton players have been training individually at the training ground and the club say this will be allowed to continue.

Clubs are due to meet today to further discuss “Project Restart” which envisages a return to play in June once given the green light from government, with the remaining 92 matches held behind closed doors at neutral venues.

The Premier League has been suspended since March 13.

“It is a concern. Unfortunately we’ve had a third player test positive yesterday,” Barber told Sky Sports yesterday.

“So despite all of the measures that we’ve been taking over the past few weeks, where the players haven’t been involved in any significant training at all, we’ve still suffered another player testing positive for the virus.”

Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero had said a number of players would be fearful of resuming the season amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

“There are concerns and I think it’s normal for all clubs to have those concerns. We want to make sure we do everything that we can to ensure those protocols are in place and are safe and secure and mitigate the risk as far as we can,” Barber added.

Brighton, 15th in the standings, have five home games left including visits from Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, and are among a number of top-flight clubs opposed to the idea of neutral venues.

It is understood Premier League clubs are not planning to vote on whether to use neutral venues at today’s meeting.

The vote looks likely to be held later in May and 14 of the 20 clubs must vote in favour for it to be adopted.