PHOENIX RISING FC 3 out after positive COVID-19 tests
Phoenix Rising FC General Manager Bobby Dulle announced in a video call to media Tuesday that three players will be unavailable for Saturday’s home match against Los Angeles Galaxy II after each recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Out of the three, two are asymptomatic and one is undergoing what Dulle said was “mild symptoms.” Rising FC coach Rick Schantz remarked that two of the players will clear protocol on game day, but he will not play them out of caution after those players underwent a 10-day break in training.
Since the club began testing in June, eight players have tested positive while five have since cleared health and safety protocols to return to practice.
“We continue to be encouraged by our protocol and the measures that we have in place,” Dulle said.
“Our conversations daily (and) great care from Mayo (Clinic), the daily health screening questions with temperature checks, sanitation measures, contact tracing, masks, social distancing, all those things continue to work. We’re encouraged by that protocol.”
The players were not named, but Schantz said that only one “regular starter” for Rising FC will be inactive for Saturday.
It is unclear if the starter is unavailable due to a positive test or due to injury, which Dulle stated one player is still healing from and won’t play this weekend.
Schantz took an optimistic approach to the positive tests, noting that with eight positives on the 21-man roster that Rising is “basically kind of on the upside ... so it can’t get worse.”
According to a National Institutes of Health study, people who’ve suffered from COVID-19 are “unlikely” to be reinfected by the virus again, but it is not known for complete certainty if that’s the case due to insufficient data.
“The question is always what happens when somebody who’s got 15 goals goes down, and he’s out for 10 days in the middle of the season?” Schantz said. “Bobby and I set out at the beginning of the year to bring in guys like Santi Moar and Lagos Kunga to push Solo (Asante) and Junior (Flemmings) and Rufat (Dadashov). I’ve got five guys on that front line that can score a lot of goals. Like I said, (I’m) a glass is half-full guy, and it’s not going to get any worse than it was two weeks ago, so we’re prepared for whatever gets thrown our way.”
Saturday’s match marks the return not only of the USL Championship, which suspended play in March, but also professional sports games being played in the Valley since COVID-19 effectively halted leagues around the globe.
Being played without fans in attendance, the match will kickoff at 7 p.m. and be broadcast nationally on ESPN Deportes.