Paris (AFP)

After bringing the 2019/2020 season to a premature end, the new coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in French football, with the discovery of new cases cascading among several teams and the cancellation of friendly matches.

Less than three weeks before the start of the 2020/21 season of the championship, several clubs thus see their summer preparation cut off and are forced to put in fourteen after the discovery of cases among the workforce and management.

An outbreak of cases at Racing Club de Strasbourg, four new players of which tested positive on Tuesday bringing the total number of cases among the team to nine, has thus forced Racing to cancel a friendly match for the third time, against Reims , after those against Nancy and Dijon.

"The four new players concerned were isolated and placed in fourteen as soon as the results were known," the club said in a statement, adding that "a specific preventive health protocol is being put in place by the club".

Earlier in the day, the friendly match between Olympique de Marseille and Montpellier scheduled for Wednesday had also been canceled, after the discovery of a potential case of Covid-19 in a Montpellier player who tested positive on Monday.

The Montpellier club feared possible contaminations since a friendly match played last week in Divonne-les-Bains against Strasbourg (lost 1-2), which announced a few days later a first wave of contaminations among five of its players.

At the end of July, the MHSC had already had to cancel a friendly match after a positive case of Covid-19 detected in a player from Sète (national).

Last week, FC Nantes had announced the contamination of five employees of its professional group, after the first three cases, including a player, midfielder Marcus Coco, revealed last week.

Other clubs, which have now been able to resume their preparation, had recorded positive cases among the players, most of them returning to training.

At LOSC, three key players in the northern workforce had thus tested positive in mid-July, Jonathan Bamba, Jonathan Ikoné and Renato Sanches, which had triggered "awareness", according to coach Christophe Galtier.

"There was a realization: I can see it in their behavior here, the barrier gestures are respected almost to the letter", had explained Galtier.

As for the Girondins de Bordeaux, the Nigerian international Samuel Kalu, tested positive in early July and placed in solitary confinement at home, has recently resumed training.

In Ligue 2, the Guingamp club announced last week that the team was in fourteen after the discovery of five cases of Covid-19 and the cancellation of three friendly matches planned against Niort, Le Mans and Le Havre.

Toulouse FC, relegated to Ligue 2, had also expressed the contamination of four of its players.

© 2020 AFP