Antonio Conte
TOTTENHAM BOSS Antonio Conte admitted his side are ‘scared’ about the COVID-19 outbreak that has ripped its way through his squad – with just eleven players left available.
He said his club is planning to request that their trip to Brighton should be postponed.
Spurs, who claimed their Europa Conference League clash with Rennes on Thursday night had been postponed before the French club reacted furiously, were forced to re-test all of their players and staff on Tuesday after seven stars and four members of staff returned positive results earlier in the week.
And further positives have emerged from their latest coronavirus PCR tests – including one player and one member of staff who were involved in training on Wednesday only to discover after the session that they had also contracted the virus, taking the total number affected to 13 players and staff.
Conte said “The problem is every day we are having people with COVID. People that yesterday weren’t positive today are positive and we continue to have contact with people we think are negative but the day after. they become positive. I think this is a serious problem.”
“I think the worst is we don’t know and we continue to have contact with people the day before was negative. And for sure, this is not a good situation.
“We had a training session. We prepare the game against Rennes but it is very difficult to face at the end of the training session again, one player positive, another member of staff positive and tomorrow who? Me? Another player? Another member of staff? And we continue in this way.
“The situation is serious but I don’t know and it’s a pity because I want to speak about football and now to speak about COVID. I think this is not good for you, me, our fans, all of football I think.”