⚽ Covid Rampant in La Liga
With La Liga set to return tonight after the Christmas break, almost evert club is feeling the effects of Covid with over 100 players reported to have tested positive upon their return.
With Spain's self-isolation period still at 10 days, players should only miss this weekend's matches but it will be interesting to see how clubs cope with their missing players.
There will also be reduced capacities across many stadia by as much as 50% in some regions.
Real Madrid
Real Madrid have confirmed that Thibaut Courtois, Federico Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga, and Vinicius have tested positive whilst last week, Isco and David Alaba had tested positive.
Barcelona
Things are looking worse at Barcelona, Ousmane Dembele, Samuel Umtiti, Gavi, Clement Lenglet, Dani Alves, Jordi Alba, Alejandro Balde, Philippe Coutinho, Sergino Dest and Ez Abde.
I've read that Barcelona are without 14 first team players for their match with Mallorca!
Elsewhere
Club | Confirmed Cases |
---|---|
Atletico Madrid | 5 (including their manager) |
Cadiz | 5 |
Celta Vigo | 9 |
Elche | 12 |
Espanyol | 6 |
Levante | 5 |
Mallorca | 7 |
Osasuna | 2 (and are training behind closed doors) |
Rayo Vallecano | 12 (and have had their requests to postpone their match against Atletico rejected (so far))*. |
Real Betis | 6 |
Real Sociedad | 10 (in the 1st team), 7 (in the Reserves) |
Sevilla | 5 |
The information is constantly changing and some teams such as Alaves and Getafe have no confirmed cases that I'm aware of at the time of writing and other club's information isn't yet available.
Sources
- https://www.marca.com/laliga-fantasy/2021/12/21/61bdf5d922601d4a5c8b45bc.html
- https://www.marca.com/futbol/sevilla/2021/12/30/61ce283022601d480d8b457a.html
- http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/20211229/2e3637d3d3264efa829673a85c92e5db/c.html
- https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-spain-idUKKBN2J90Z1
- https://www.aa.com.tr/en/sports/real-madrid-says-4-more-players-tested-covid-19-positive/2460816
- https://www.marca.com/en/football/spanish-football/2021/12/28/61cb6d6022601d5b468b45b7.html
If you're playing La Liga Fantasy Marca, I hope that you're prepared for this although as things stand, we don't have the postponements that we've been seeing in the Premier League to contend with.
How could I prepare for this? 😁
🤷♀️ If only I knew! I only have Benzema as my fit forward so if he catches it too then I'm down to 10 men already! And given how many Real Madrid players have it, it's quite likely!
I don't think we have the last of covid. I think more games will be cancelled and players testing positive will continue.