Another international break brings more COVID-19 drama. That’s no surprise.
Thankfully, this time, Celtic don’t appear to be directly impacted, yet.
The Republic of Ireland have confirmed that one of their players has returned a positive test and is now self-isolating after joining up with the national team squad.
A statement said: “The Football Association of Ireland can confirm that one member of the senior men’s international team has tested positive for COVID-19.
“There are no close contacts of the player and the rest of the staff & squad tested negative ahead of Thursday’s match against England.”
It’s not known who the player is but thankfully it doesn’t appear to be Celtic defender Shane Duffy.
The Bhoys star has been spotted in training pictures, promoted by the official FAI Twitter account tonight.
That’ll be a relief to Neil Lennon, who must be anxiously watching on during this international break and wondering who will come home and who will be forced into quarantine, or worse, test positive for the coronavirus.
The fact no close contacts have been identified is also a promising sign that Duffy won’t fall ill later this week.
Their training base is in London so they haven’t travelled further afield either.
We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed there are no problems for the rest of Lennon’s squad.
After drama involving Odsonne Edouard, Nir Bitton, Hatem Abd Elhamed and Ryan Christie, it’s something we could really do without.
In other news, Johan Mjallby is keen on a Celtic coaching return.
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