Premier League: Tottenham player tests positive for COVID-19

Tottenham Hotspur has revealed that one of their unnamed players has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That player has been instructed to self-isolate for seven days.

It has been understood that the infected player has yet to exhibit any symptoms of the virus.

The London side is eager to maintain confidentiality regarding that individual's identity. However, as per initial reports, the infected player isn't a member of the Spurs' first team.

This positive test result is the first and the only one so far to have emerged from the fifth and latest round of screening in the Premier League. The latest screening tested 1,197 players and members of staff across the 20 clubs.

Experts believe that such a low rate of positive results would only boost the possibility of Project Restart.

Recently, the league authorities had pledged to make the results of the tests public in an attempt to safeguard the interests of transparency.

As far as the aggregated numbers are concerned, so far there have been 13 COVID-19 positives from the 5,073 people who have been screened throughout the five rounds.

There has always been the fear that high or rising numbers of COVID-19 infections among players and staff members could jeopardise the league's plan to restart on June 17.

As of now, league authorities and the clubs involved in the tournament are aiming to complete the remaining 92 games before July 25 or 26. But that plan seems to have been disrupted with the recent positive test of the Tottenham player.

The recent positive result announced on Wednesday is followed by zero positive results recorded during the previous round of testing. As a result, there are fears that more positive results might come out over the next week or so.

BBC reports that players and staff are currently being tested twice a week.

On Thursday, the clubs and league bosses would hold a conference call to discuss a variety of topics including curtailment scenarios and a proposed fixture list.

Among the other topics to be discussed are more technical matters related to player registration, substitutes, and squad size.

The Metropolitan police said that it would take a look at the final proposed fixture list before deciding whether any matches in London must be moved to neutral venues.