Madrid (AFP)
French world champion and FC Barcelona central defender Samuel Umtiti (26) has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the Catalan club announced on Friday evening in a press release.
"After the PCR exams carried out yesterday Thursday, the first team player Samuel Umtiti tested positive for Covid-19. He is asymptomatic, in good health and is in isolation at his home," Barça announced in a statement. broadcast this Friday, an hour and a half before the kick-off of its Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich in Lisbon (19:00 GMT).
Samuel Umtiti (26 years old, 31 caps), injured in the left knee, is not present with the rest of the Barcelona group in Portugal for the final tournament of the Champions League.
"The club have informed the relevant sports and health authorities. All the people who have been in contact with the player have been traced so that they pass the appropriate PCR tests," added the club blaugrana in its statement.
He is the second French FC Barcelona player to test positive in a few days, after the announcement of a first case on Wednesday, which turned out to be the young French defender Jean-Clair Todibo (20), who was starting his preseason in Catalonia after returning from his six-month loan to Schalke 04.
Todibo, like Umtiti, was not in contact with the team that made the trip to Lisbon for the unseen Champions League "Final 8".
Umtiti's disaster season therefore continues him: the former Lyonnais spent most of the 2019-2020 fiscal year in the shadow of his compatriot Clément Lenglet in central defense Blaugrana (only 18 matches played in all competitions), and had already injured his right calf in early June, the day after Barça resumed training after coming out of confinement.
At the start of the season, he had already suffered two injuries, to a foot and a knee, which had caused him to miss a total of ten matches between September and November.
© 2020 AFP