English players Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell are undergoing self-isolation, following Billy Gilmour’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis, England have confirmed via social media. Scotland’s player tested positive for the virus earlier in the day on Monday.
The Three Lions clashed with Scotland on Friday. In what a pretty dull affair for most parts of the game, both teams settled for a 0-0 stalemate. Given the significant gulf in class between the two teams, England were touted as the obvious favourites for the match. Hence, the Scottish players have been justifiably showered with praises since the completion of the match.
Almost every Scotland player had a good game, but the player who arguably had the biggest impact was Billy Gilmour. The 20-year-old youngster also received the man of the match award for his heroics.
Scotland were hoping Gilmour to have a similar influence in their last group stage match against Croatia, which will be played on Tuesday. Quite understandably, the news of Billy Gilmour’s positive diagnosis for COVID-19 came as a massive blow for them, while the footballing world wished the young sensation a quick recovery.
“The Scottish FA can confirm that a member of the Scotland National Team playing squad, Billy Gilmour, has tested positive for COVID-19. Having liaised with Public Health England since the positive test was recorded, Billy will now self-isolate for 10 days and therefore miss tomorrow’s UEFA EURO 2020 Group D match against Croatia at Hampden,”
a statement released by the Scottish FA read.
After the end of the match, Gilmour was seen chatting with England’s Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell, all very visibly being in close contact. Notably, all three players play for the London-based team Chelsea FC.
The England team released a statement later in the day, confirming that both Mount and Chilwell are undergoing self-isolation. It also stated that the entire English squad tested negative on Monday afternoon.
“The pair will be kept away from the rest of the England players and wider support team, pending further discussions with PHE. The entire squad had lateral flow tests on Monday afternoon and all were again negative, as was the case with Sunday’s UEFA pre-match PCR tests,
the FA statement read.
Mount and Chilwell availability uncertain for Czech Republic match
Despite being placed under self-isolation, neither Mount nor Chilwell have been ruled out of England’s Group D match against the Czech Republic. In a press conference, which happened just minutes after the official statement was released, Three Lions’ head coach Gareth Southgate confirmed that the availability of the duo was uncertain at that moment, with ‘investigations’ being carried out behind the scenes.
“There’s still a lot of discussions and investigations going on behind the scenes,” said Southgate, as quoted by the England national football team on Twitter. The 50-year-old also stated that while the vaccine might not entirely stop the spread of COVID-19, it would have been helpful had his players been vaccinated.
“In terms of the vaccinations, you need to go back to my suggestions in March around that where I was fairly firmly shouted down for daring to suggest anything of the sort,”
Southgate said, as quoted by Express.
England are currently second in the Group D standings, with four points in their bag. They will be able to secure the pole position with only a win in this match. While England will secure a round of 16 place with even a defeat in this match, Southgate’s men would want to finish their group stage campaign on a high.
