Atletico Madrid duo Diego Costa and Santiago Arias test positive for coronavirus and will miss start of pre-season as they quarantine
- Atletico Madrid players Diego Costa and Santiago Arias do not have symptoms
- But both were positive for coronavirus having undergone test on holiday
- Both men will remain in quarantine and miss the start of pre-season training
- PSG have also been struck down by virus with Neymar among those positive
Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa and defender Santiago Arias have tested positive for coronavirus.
The players are in quarantine and will not report for the team’s first day of pre-season training on Friday.
Most of the squad underwent their tests on Thursday, but Costa and Arias had tested positive while on holiday, the club said.
Diego Costa has tested positive for coronavirus but is not experiencing any symptoms
Neither man has shown any symptoms of the illness but they must remain in isolation away from Diego Simeone’s squad.
Atletico will begin their season at the end of the month against Granada in LaLiga.
Their first two league matches were postponed because their season ended later as the team participated in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Santiago Arias is the other Atletico Madrid player to have returned a positive test
Coronavirus is causing havoc for other teams in Europe too, with a number of players testing positive having travelled abroad during the break.
L’Equipe report that Marquinhos, Keylor Navas and Mauro Icardi were the latest after Neymar, Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes contracted the illness following a break in Ibiza.
Ligue 1 began again on August 21 after a lengthy hiatus, but PSG are yet to kick-start their title defence after reaching the Champions League final last month.
Neymar (bottom right) had recently been on holiday in Ibiza before contracting the disease
Marseille and Saint-Etienne were originally scheduled to clash on the opening day, but the fixture was postponed after four players for the home team tested positive.
The Premier League will be wary of similar issues ahead of the new campaign with multiple players having returned from Greece with the virus already.
Should there be a huge rise in cases and the need for key players to quarantine, the beginning of the season could be severely disrupted.