Lokomotiv striker Farfan tests positive for Covid-19
MOSCOW: Veteran Peruvian striker Jefferson Farfan has become the first player in Russia to test positive for coronavirus, his Lokomotiv Moscow club said on Saturday, just five weeks before the Premier League season restarts.
“The coronavirus has been diagnosed in our player Jefferson Farfan. Our best wishes for your health, Jeff. Recover quickly,” Lokomotiv tweeted.
Anatoli Mechtcheriakov, chairman of the club’s board of directors, told RiaNovosti news agency: “He is in Moscow and has not been hospitalised.”
Farfan, 35, who signed for Lokomotiv in 2017, has not played at all this season for the club after suffering a knee injury in last year’s Copa America.
The Russian Premier League, suspended since March 17, will resume on June 21 behind closed doors.
Meanwhile the Russian government said yesterday it would allow foreign athletes competing in its domestic sports leagues to enter the country.
Russia closed its borders in March to foreigners and grounded international flights, except those repatriating Russians or returning foreign nationals to their country of origin, in a bid to stem the spread of the virus.
The government said athletes and coaches under contract with a Russian sports organisation would be put under medical observation and obliged to spend two weeks in quarantine upon their return to the country.
“The decision will help professional sports organisations, including the soccer clubs in the Russian Premier League, to resume training after the easing of measures linked to the spread of the coronavirus,” the government said in a statement.
Russia’s Covid-19 task force said yesterday it had recorded 9,709 new cases of the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 281,752.