Breakers shutdown ‘a hiccup’ – owner

The New Zealand Breakers have been forced to cancel their final NBL pre-season game after being rocked by four positive Covid tests within their extended group in Melbourne.

But team owner Matt Walsh, who is with the touring party that has been in self-isolation since Sunday night, said the team hopes to get back on the training court as early as today or tomorrow in Melbourne and continuing with preparations for its NBL season opener at South East Melbourne Phoenix on December 4.

The Breakers’ planned preseason visit to the Illawarra Hawks tomorrow is now off, but at this stage there is no suggestion of the season-opener being* cancelled. However the situation will continue to be monitored by the NBL as further testing takes place.

All players and staff within the Breakers camp in Australia are double vaccinated, and the extended group has been isolating since an unnamed member of the Breakers touring group felt unwell immediately following Saturday night’s pre-season win against the Phoenix – their second victory in three buildup games.

Since then three more members of the extending touring party of 39, which includes family members of the Breakers playing group and staff, have tested positive.

Walsh told he was not willing to identify the personnel who had contracted the virus but said ‘‘there are members of the staff and the playing group who have Covid’’. ‘‘Nobody is in any danger of heading to the hospital any time soon,’’ he said. ‘‘We prepared for this possibility when we came here, knowing at some point we could face something like this.

‘‘We have followed all NBL protocols – right now we’re all in isolation, and we’re going to get further testing tomorrow [Wednesday] to ensure that it is just the four within the group that have tested positive and carry on from there.’’

Walsh called the shutdown a ‘‘hiccup’’ and said it was better to have happened now than much closer to the December 4 season tipoff.

‘‘The hope is we just have the four [positive tests] in the group and we can start preparing again tomorrow or the following day, and we will be able to schedule another pre-season game some time against one of the Melbourne teams.

‘‘Having only four pre-season games is tough as it is, so we’re going to try to replace that game. But we’ll get through this.

‘‘It was almost a shock we went three weeks without anything, given that last year three weeks in we’d already moved two times,’’ Walsh said. ‘‘It’s all gone a little too smooth, with buzzerbeaters off the backboard and comeback wins, so now we’ve got to get through this, and we will.’’

The drama started when a member of the Breakers touring group felt unwell following Saturday night’s game, took a rapid antigen test at midnight, and it came back negative.

Still feeling unwell the following day, he had a PCR test which subsequently showed a positive result for Covid-19.

Walsh said the group was all in good spirits as they isolated in their apartments, with best efforts being made to keep those that were feeling well active.

‘‘This is part of the new Covid world we live in, and hopefully we’ve caught it with just the four of us that have gotten it and we move on from here.

Walsh said he didn’t think their season opener was in doubt, though that could depend on the test results today.

‘‘We’ve got to get through this, and we will.’’

Breakers owner Matt Walsh