More COVID-19 precautions are being taken at Valdebebas, Real Madrid's training centre, following the positive tests of Marcelo and Luka Modric that were announced on Wednesday and those of basketball player Thomas Heurtel and basketball coach Pablo Laso on Monday. The capital city club fear there may be more cases in the building, so they're being extra cautious.
Real Madrid have reimplemented some of the coronavirus protocols that were in place at the start of the pandemic. Los Blancos have been cautious throughout and have kept player contact with external parties limited, for example even maintaining virtual press conferences when others club brought journalists back into the press room.
Four more Real Madrid players, including Gareth Bale, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, joining Marcelo and Luka Modric, whose positives were announced the day before. Real Madrid also made an official statement: "Real Madrid C. F. informs that our players Marco Asensio, Gareth Bale, Andriy Lunin and Rodrygo, and our head assistant coach Davide Ancelotti have tested positive for COVID-19”.
Although Real are potentially without six or seven players for Sunday's Liga match against Cadiz, only Modric and Asensio started in their last match, against Atletico Madrid. Rodrygo came off the bench, while Bale and Lunin were unused substitutes. Under Liga protocols, a club must have at least 13 players, at least five of them first-teamers and one a goalkeeper, available to play a match.
However, as the weeked appreoached Luka Modric tested negative for COVID-19 following a second PCR test, but LaLiga and the Community of Madrid state that he will not be able to play for Real Madrid against Cadiz on Sunday. The same goes for the others (if they also get a negative result before the match starts). Besides this, the players have also left their training ground since they tested positive and they would still not be in their best form even if they were allowed to play.
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