Granit Xhaka from Arsenal has tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, according to the Swiss national team. In other words, Xhaka has coronavirus after his international duty in Switzerland as part of the international summer right now.
Granit Xhaka, an Arsenal midfielder, tested positive for coronavirus while on playing on international duty with Switzerland.
The midfielder was sent off in Arsenal’s 5-0 loss to Manchester City just last weekend.
And now, the Swiss team has confirmed, on Wednesday, that Xhaka was in isolation after a positive PCR test result.
Xhaka, who is actually Switzerland’s captain, began to exhibit symptoms early on Wednesday, just before his country’s friendly against Greece.
An initial test culminated in a negative result, but a follow-up PCR test confirmed a positive result for the virus. Now, today, on Thursday, Xhaka will take another test.
Xhaka Has Coronavirus after His International Duty in Switzerland…and What This Means
Recently, we reported football news that Premier League, along with La Liga and Serie A, banned travel to red-list nations. They refused to release players who had international duty in COVID-19 red-listed countries, which were primarily South American (CONMEBOL) countries.
Meanwhile, players traveling to European countries, and other nations not on these governments’ red lists, still got to do so. Xhaka himself got to travel to Switzerland, which is ironically where he tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
This js because the English, Spanish and Italian top-flights were concerned about the unavailability of CONMEBOL players upon their return.
UK’s COVID-19 regulations necessitated a quarantine period of 10 days for those traveling to red list nations. And Spain and Italy’s mandates also demanded similar, extended periods of isolation.
This is why clubs from these domestic leagues unanimously decided to ban players from traveling to red-list nations.
However, the pattern that we notice, especially after Xhaka’s Switzerland exposure to the virus, details the clubs’ true priorities.
Even in a pandemic, only dangers to players’ availability, and not to their health, moved these leagues into decisive action.
We may be reading a bit too much into this series of events. But it is still worth examining the motivating factors behind big leagues’ decisions at all times.
