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Tuesday 13 October 2020 18:09, UK
A Republic of Ireland player has withdrawn from the squad after recording a second positive coronavirus test in three days, just hours after receiving a negative result.
The FAI (Football Association of Ireland) had announced its intention to launch an investigation after the player in question tested positive on Sunday but negative on Monday.
A second positive test in three days has forced him to be withdrawn from Stephen Kenny's squad and he will have to self-isolate for 10 days as per government guidelines.
The player, who has not been named, will miss Ireland's UEFA Nations League fixture with Finland on Wednesday night.
The FAI confirmed in a statement on Tuesday morning the player did not come into close contact with any of his team-mates or backroom staff.
A statement read: "The FAI can confirm that the player who initially tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday night is now out of the Ireland squad for the UEFA Nations League game in Finland, after the second of two tests on Monday produced a positive result.
"The player - who cannot be named - had received a positive result from a UEFA test on Sunday followed by a negative result from a second test on Monday morning.
"A third test has now come back positive and the player will now self-isolate for the next 10 days as per HSE guidelines. No members of the Irish squad or the backroom team have been identified as close contacts of the player.
"Ireland manager Stephen Kenny will not call up any replacements for the Finland fixture in light of this news. The HSE and UEFA will be informed of the latest positive result and the player's withdrawal from the Irish squad."
The news comes after it emerged the staff member whose test in Slovakia, which prompted the withdrawals of Aaron Connolly and Adam Idah from Thursday night's Euro 2020 play-off semi-final, had been a false positive.
It is not the first example of coronavirus protocols severely affecting manager Kenny's plans over the last week.
John Egan, Callum Robinson, Callum O'Dowda, Alan Browne and Derrick Williams all missed their match with Wales in Dublin after another unnamed player tested positive.
Connolly has since been given permission to rejoin the Republic of Ireland squad.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference in Helsinki, Kenny was able to look at the bigger picture.
He said: "Listen, there are people experiencing far worse than we are at the moment. This coronavirus has killed thousands of people throughout Europe and bigger numbers throughout the world, so it's been bigger than sport.
"For us, yes, it did have an impact. For example, we've had eight players missing over the last week because of contact tracing, so that has been significant.
"We had eight players through contact tracing missing against Wales the other day, and we hadn't got David McGoldrick and James McCarthy, who were injured and we already had Seamus Coleman, Harry Arter and Darragh Lenihan out of the original squad, so we had 13 players unavailable for the game against Wales.
"Considering that, the players did remarkably well. Considering 13 players were unavailable, I think they did really well and were are unfortunate not to win, really."
