Sometimes it doesn’t rain, but it pours for footballers, and that’s certainly been the case for Leeds United’s Helder Costa.
The winger is currently on loan with Valencia, having been shipped out of Elland Road at the end of the transfer window following Dan James’ arrival from Manchester City.
The loan spell has not been going well for the forward, though, with him barely featuring under Jose Bordalas and not impressing when he does.
It’s seen the Leeds man roundly criticised in Spain, where he has been told in no uncertain terms he needs to get his act together on more than one occasion.
The international break has therefore come at a nice time, offering him the opportunity to link up with his country, get some game-time and hopefully come back to Valencia and fight for his place.
Except, Covid had other plans. El Desmarque explain that Costa was a surprise part of Valencia training today after Covid issues led him to into a travel nightmare.
They explain that Costa had flown out to link up with Angola but, during a stop-over in Germany, learned the pilot of his plane had tested positive for the virus.
Faced with this ‘inconvenience’, the player was sent back to Spain to undergo a PCR test at Valencia to see if he also tests positive.
At this point, the Angolan FA then decided for him to stay at home until he learned the results, which came back negative this morning.
However, all parties then decided it was better for him to just stay where he was as it was ‘materially impossible’ for him to land in time to face Gabon on Friday.
Furthermore, it was also felt silly for him to travel all that way for the second game on October 11th before then returning.
Thus he’s ended up staying where he was, with three days off before a return to training and an attempt to turn his loan from Leeds into a success, as opposed to the disaster it’s been so far.
