Paris (AFP)

Three new players from Paris SG have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the number of infected within the club to six and further complicating his resumption in Ligue 1.

"The latest SarsCoV2 PCR tests carried out within the Paris Saint-Germain workforce confirm the result of three new positive cases. These players are following the appropriate health protocol," the capital club announced on Twitter on Thursday evening.

They are in addition to the three already communicated: Neymar, Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes according to information from the newspaper L'Equipe, confirmed to AFP by a source in the sports entourage of the players who requires anonymity because of the Confidential medical information.

The identity of the three new players who tested positive has not been disclosed but, according to L'Equipe, it is captain Marquinhos, goalkeeper Keylor Navas and striker Mauro Icardi.

All of them spent their holidays in Ibiza.

Players who spent their holidays away from the Spanish island were tested on Thursday, later than the others.

- New health protocol -

A second postponement of the Lens-PSG match, scheduled for September 10 for the French champion's big debut in L1, seemed a little less imminent with the relaxation of the health protocol decided by the Professional Football League (LFP).

Until then, the League could decide on a postponement from four positive cases detected within the club over eight rolling days.

According to the amended protocol, validated by the League but which had to be brought to the attention of the Ministry of Sports, it will now be enough for 20 players including a goalkeeper to be negative, out of a list of 30 communicated by the club, to maintain a meeting.

The executive director general of the LFP Didier Quillot did not specify when this measure would come into force.

PSG, which had already postponed the resumption of training to Friday, may have to delay it further and the workforce will be forced to train in small groups, as the League had hitherto required.

In the meantime, these new contaminations will fuel the controversy on the Lensois side.

The northern club had agreed to postpone its match against PSG, the first in Ligue 1 at Bollaert for nine years, postponed from August 29 to September 10 at the request of the Parisians, to allow Neymar's partners to breathe after their journey until in the Champions League final.

"We leave certain things to some and we suffer", thundered Thursday morning Dominique Leroux, president of the group of Blood and Gold supporters, Captain Siko, contacted by an AFP correspondent.

- "Making fun of" -

Because as soon as the postponement was recorded, most of the Parisian players went on vacation, including a good part in Ibiza, where the virus is actively circulating.

They photographed themselves on social networks, parading on yachts off the island popular with football stars, with relative respect for barrier gestures, despite the club's instructions.

"It's a mess after already a first postponement. There, going on vacation all together, with the night out ... It was sure that would happen", complained for his part Loïc Willer, president of the North Devils, another group of Lensois supporters.

If the match were to be held, Parisian coach Thomas Tuchel would in any case be faced with a puzzle.

In addition to his French internationals Kylian Mbappé and Presnel Kimpembe, selected with the Blues to face Croatia two days before the match in Lens, the German technician can no longer count on six executives, because of the virus.

And he will also have to anticipate a very dense schedule, with the reception of Marseille three days later at the Parc des Princes, a prelude to two meetings the following week against Metz and in Nice.

For the Lensois, the return of Ligue 1 to the Bollaert stadium may face an alternate team ... Already, the party is ruined.

© 2020 AFP