Wellington Phoenix hope they've avoided a wider outbreak in their A-League Men squad after the two players that tested positive for Covid-19 returned negative results today.
Coach Ufuk Talay says the two players will still miss tomorrow's game against Adelaide and would only return to training a week after returning a negative test, meaning they'll also miss next Wednesday's rescheduled FFA Cup quarterfinal against Melbourne City.
"They're feeling good to be honest and actually had negative RATs [rapid antigen tests] today, which is positive for us, but those two won't be travelling," he said.
Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
He said there had been no other postive tests, although there was not word yet on the third person - a member of the team management - as to whether their test had come back negative too.
Games can be postponed if teams have five players unavailable due to Covid-19 but Talay wants to see games continue where possible to avoid a possible backlog later in the season.
"If we have a pause there's going to be such a backlog of games that we need to squeeze in till the end of the season, so if the games can be played, we need play the games," he said.
"The hardest thing is once they get it is not being able to train and be on the park and trying to get them back to a certain level again within the season. "