PSG’s Neymar Tests Positive For Coronavirus

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Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar has tested positive for the coronavirus following a holiday to Ibiza, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

Neymar, who received the test results on Wednesday morning, is in good health and following protocol, sources said. He is now in self-isolation for 14 days at his house in Bougival, in the east suburbs of Paris, and will miss PSG’s first game of the season, against Lens on Sept. 10, and the Classique against Marseille on Sept. 13.

A further source confirmed that Neymar is due to be retested.

Neymar’s teammate Angel Di Maria is also in self-isolation in Paris after testing positive for COVID-19, sources told ESPN. The Argentina international also went on a holiday to Ibiza. Teammate Leandro Paredes, who spent his holidays with Di Maria on the Spanish island, has tested positive as well and is also in self-isolation, sources said.

Neymar is the latest high-profile soccer player to test positive for the virus. Manchester United’s Paul Pogba was removed from the France squad following his test. Pogba has been replaced by Eduardo Camavinga in Didier Deschamps’ squad to face Sweden on Sept. 5 and Croatia on Sept. 8.

PSG are due to play at Lens for their first Ligue 1 game. Their first match against Metz at the Parc des Princes was postponed due to PSG’s participation in the Champions League final, where they lost to Bayern Munich.

The Ligue 1 protocol for the coronavirus is strict. If a club has four positive cases in their squad, their game is postponed. Such was the case for Marseille, whose clash with Saint-Etienne on the opening day of the season had to be postponed.

“If I die, I die,” the Minnesota Vikings quarterback said during a recent interview on Spotify’s “10 Questions With Kyle Brandt” podcast. “I kind of have peace about that.”

Cousins indicated during the interview, published Wednesday, that he does not believe face masks work in helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but he repeatedly said that he also tried to respect others’ “concerns” about the virus.

Brandt asked Cousins to rate his level of concern over contracting the virus on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “the person who says, ‘Masks are stupid, you’re all a bunch of lemmings,’ and 10 is, ‘I’m not leaving my master bathroom for the next 10 years.'”

Cousins replied: “I’m not gonna call anybody stupid, for the trouble it would get me in. But I’m about a .000001.”

When asked to elaborate on that answer, Cousins said:

“I want to respect what other people’s concerns are. For me personally, just talking no one else can get the virus, what is your concern if you could get it, I would say I’m gonna go about my daily life. If I get it, I’m gonna ride it out. I’m gonna let nature do its course. Survival-of-the-fittest kind of approach. And just say, if it knocks me out, it knocks me out. I’m going to be OK. You know, even if I die. If I die, I die. I kind of have peace about that.”

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Cousins continued to say that for him, wearing a mask “is really about being respectful to other people.

“It really has nothing do with my own personal thoughts,” he said.

Earlier during the podcast, Cousins was asked what the general reaction would be if a teammate sneezed while in the huddle.

“I even think within the building, there’s gonna be a dichotomy of people who couldn’t care less about the virus, have no concern about it, have never lost a minute of sleep about it,” he said. “And then you get people on the other side of the spectrum who, every second of every day, they’re consumed with fear about it.

“What you don’t know is who’s where on the spectrum when you first go back.”

The NFL has updated its game-day protocols by requiring every coach and staff member in the bench area to wear a mask and reducing the size of each team’s travel party.

The league and the NFL Players Association announced Tuesday that 10 players and other team personnel tested positive for the virus during the league’s latest testing period of Aug. 21-29.

According to the data, 8,739 players and personnel were given 58,621 tests during the Aug. 21-29 time period. That included 23,279 tests to 2,747 players and 35,342 to 5,992 personnel.

By: Espn.com