Russian football club Orenburg became the fourth team hit by coronavirus cases since the Russian league resumed last weekend, announcing on Thursday that eight staff had tested positive.
Orenburg, who are scheduled to play high-flying Krasnodar on Saturday, said six players and two backroom staff returned positive tests.
Coach Konstantin Paramonov said Thursday’s training had been canceled and raised the possibility that the first team would be put in isolation and completely replaced for the league game on the weekend.
Orenburg said its players had all tested negative before last weekend’s game against Lokomotiv Moscow.
According to Paramonov, the team was again tested at the airport, after the match against Lokomotiv, with six players producing tests that came back positive.
Russian league president Sergei Pryadkin said the players who had tested positive were isolated and an official health inquiry was under way.
Lokomotiv announced on Wednesday that it had placed its players and technical staff under quarantine at the club’s training center because of the rise of coronavirus cases in Russian football.
Lokomotiv are second in the Russian league, nine points behind Zenit St. Petersburg and three ahead of Krasnodar.
The club said in a statement that until further notice, the entire professional staff will reside at Bakovka, the club’s training center south-west of the Russian capital.
The Russian league resumed on June 19 but was immediately disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Rostov’s entire squad was quarantined after six players tested positive, forcing the club to send its youth team to play in Sochi where they lost 10-1.
Three Dinamo Moscow players also tested positive and the club’s match against Krasnodar was postponed.
