COVID-19 Storm Hits Africa Cup Preparations

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 crisis, whose cases continued to increase on Wednesday, further disrupted preparations for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, which was originally scheduled to take place in Cameroon, Sunday this week.

Quoted from Antara, Thursday, the Senegal national team should have left for Cameroon while still staying in Dakar on Wednesday because their entire squad underwent a retest following the positive results of Pape Matar Srr, Nampalys Mendy, and Mame Baba Thiam.

Secretary-General of the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) Victor Seh Cisse said six members of the national team staff had also tested positive for COVID-19, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Burkina Faso, who will face host Cameroon in their opening match at the Olembe Stadium, Yaounde, on Sunday, is in danger of losing at least three players who are still left in Abu Dhabi to undergo self-quarantine.

Issoufou Dayo, Dramane Nikiema, and Kylian Nikiema are only allowed to travel if they test negative for COVID-19 so they are almost certain to miss the opening match, said a statement from Burkina Faso national team officials.

Hosts Cameroon is on a more positive spectrum after several of their players completed quarantine and were able to return to full training, namely Michael Ngadeu Ngadjui and Pierre Kunde who had tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

The Malawian delegation left for Cameroon this Wednesday, but left three of their players namely Mark Fodya, Charles Petro, and Richard Mbulu to undergo quarantine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and was only scheduled to be retested on Thursday. If the result is negative, they can leave for Cameroon the day after.

The Cape Verde Islands and Tunisia also reported several positive cases of COVID-19 while Ivory Coast was forced to cancel their second warm-up match at a training camp in Saudi Arabia.

Cape Verde, who is training in his own country, said head coach Bubista had tested positive for COVID-19 and was in isolation just a day before his scheduled flight to Cameroon on Thursday (6/1).

During the preparatory period, Cape Verde found at least 21 positive tests among their players and staff, but the local federation said five players could return to training, three were quarantined and eight others tested positive for COVID-19 without symptoms.

Tunisia reported that their captain Youssef Msakni and forward Seifeddine Jazizi had tested positive for COVID-19 and canceled warm-up matches against Ivory Coast and Mali in Jeddah.