Arsenal loanee Matteo Guendouzi’s positive Coronavirus test has been described as the ‘worst-case’ by Hertha Berlin boss Bruno Labbadia.
The French midfielder tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week after being on international duty with France’s U21s.
It means he will now have to isolate for ten days and that’s something of a disaster for new club Hertha, whom he joined from Arsenal on deadline day, as Kicker explain today.
They state the plan had been for Guendouzi to play for France’s U21s on Monday night, return to Berlin on Tuesday, train individually Wednesday and then train with his teammates on Thursday before starting against Stuttgart on Saturday.
However, ‘reality thwarted this plan’ when Hertha received the first Corona test on Wednesday and a second test was also positive on Thursday morning.
That leaves the Arsenal loanee, who had been signed as ‘emergency aid’ and a ‘key player’, in quarantine from Thursday and set to miss the games against Stuttgart and RB Leipzig.
It’s a big blow to their plans and something that both coach Labbadia and managing director Michael Preetz lamenting their luck.
“It was very complicated with the signing of him,” Kicker report Labbadia saying.
“He was here a few hours and had to leave again immediately. We were happy that he played 65 and 90 minutes for the French U21s. But now it is the worst case happened,”
“He can’t go out. We’ll try to do a virtual training session with him in his room. We have to work optimally with him over the ten days, as long as his condition allows so that he loses as little physical as possible.”
“The international matches went almost perfectly. Matteo got the necessary match practice,” added Preetz.
“We assumed that he would have been ready for Saturday. Now things have turned out differently.
“We will take all measures to burden Matteo, if he hopefully remains symptom-free, with all the possibilities of virtual training. We have gained a lot of experience with this over the past weeks and months.”
