Will the Marseille Saint-Etienne match supposed to kick off the Ligue 1 season on Friday even be held? The clouds around the meeting have been gathering for a few days on the Olympian side. After announcing a first case of coronavirus among its players (Jordan Amavi), Olympique de Marseille indicated Sunday evening that "three new suspected cases of Covid-19 have been detected within its professional workforce".
"The club contacted the LFP commission scheduled for this purpose as early as this (Sunday) evening," OM said in a press release. According to the medical protocol of the League, which must be validated Tuesday by the Interministerial Crisis Committee (CIC), a "Covid commission" will have the power to pronounce the postponement of matches, in particular in the event that more than three players or supervisors are tested positive in the same team.
Including these three new cases in Marseille, around forty L1 players from 11 clubs have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks. The vast majority of them contracted the virus after resuming training in June, resulting in more or less solitary confinement depending on the case and cascading cancellations of friendly matches.
"Big fears" for the recovery
With many cases of positive players, Montpellier (6 cases), Nantes (7) and Strasbourg (9) had to cancel several essential preparation matches to find automatisms. “When they become negative again, we can recover them. But in what state, I do not know, “lamented Strasbourg coach Thierry Laurey on Saturday.
In Nantes, the medical protocol in place requires extensive cardiac examinations at least one month after the first positive test, even in the absence of symptoms, before any resumption of training. A positive player is therefore a priori excluded from any competition for at least six weeks. "We find ourselves deprived of important players, this is not trivial ... And in the season that may still happen because we do not know how long the antibodies last," said Nantes technician Christian Gourcuff.
"The clubs have great fears for the resumption of the championship", slips a leader of Ligue 1. "We are afraid of being in the situation where for three months we had the car in the garage without being able to take it out, and when finally we can resume the road there is a risk of breaking down. "