Western United coach John Aloisi is hopeful the club has been able to contain its COVID-19 breakout, while Melbourne Victory mentor Tony Popovic believes it’s just a matter of time before everyone tests positive to the virus.
Three Western United players were ruled out of last week’s 1-0 win over Adelaide United, and those same three players will also miss Sunday’s A-League Men clash with Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park.
A total of nine ALM clubs have been hit with COVID cases in recent weeks, but Aloisi said the virus hasn’t spread beyond the initial three players at Western.
However, he is well aware that situation could change in the blink of an eye.
“Look, you can never be on top of it, because I don’t think the country is on top of it,” Aloisi said.
“But we’re on top of it as much as we possibly can. There’s still a couple of days to go before the game, we’ll still have tests today, we’ll still have tests tomorrow, and then we’ll have tests on the day of the game.
“Anything can pop up during that period. Lucky enough it hasn’t spread as bad as it did at Melbourne City.”
Six Melbourne City players tested positive earlier this week, forcing the postponement of an ALM match and two FFA Cup fixtures.
Victory played against City last week, and players have been nervously waiting to see if they were exposed to the virus during the game.
So far there haven’t been any positive returns, and Popovic has been doing his best to alleviate any concerns.
“I think everyone is a little bit nervous about what’s happening and what could happen next in this situation,” Popovic said.
“But look, we’ve done what we had to do in terms of our testing and precautions.
“We’re doing our best as a football club in alleviating any anxiety.”
With athletes from all around the world now testing positive to the virus, Popovic is adopting the attitude of ‘when’, not ‘if’.
“I think everyone’s going to get it,” he said.
“It is a matter of when, but you are just trying to limit the when in what we can control.
“They’re the precautions that we’re taking, they’re the precautions the general public are taking on a day to day basis – on where you go and where you don’t go.
“We’re doing the same here, and that’s all we can do.”
