Federico Bernardeschi tests positive for COVID-19

The COVID-19 outbreak amongst players and staff on the Italian national team only continues to grow. The same goes for the number of players at Juventus who were part of the Azzurri’s recent games over the international break.

First it was Leonardo Bonucci. Now, five days later, Federico Bernardeschi has become the latest Italian at Juventus to test positive for COVID-19, the club announced late Tuesday morning. Bernardeschi, according to the club’s statement, is asymptomatic and has entered isolation and will be out for at least the next two weeks, meaning Juventus’ roster crunch just became that much more of a thing and Andrea Pirlo has another piece off the bench out of commission.

The statement from Juventus’ official website is as follows:

Juventus Football Club announces that, during the checks provided for by the protocol in force, Federico Bernardeschi tested positive for Covid-19. The footballer is in isolation and asymptomatic.

The club remains in contact with the relevant Health Authorities in implementation of the protocols envisaged to allow training and match activities of the Team Group.

Bernardeschi is the latest in a growing list of Italian players who have tested positive over the last week. The list includes Alessandro Florenzi and Marco Verratti, as well as goalkeepers Alessio Cragno and Salvatore Sirigu, who tested positive on Monday following the 2-2 draw with Juventus in the Derby della Mole.

Bernardeschi is the third player within the last week to test positive for COVID-19, joining Bonucci and Merih Demiral, who also contracted the disease while on international duty with Turkey. (Why he was with Turkey despite being injured is still a mystery, but this season doesn’t make sense at all, so we’ll just go with it.)

As of this writing, The director of the ASL of Turin has said that Juventus’ showdown with Napoli on Wednesday night at Allianz Stadium is not at risk of being postponed due to the COVID-19 situation with the Italian champions. “At the moment, the game is not at risk,” Carlo Picco told CalcioNapoli24 (via Football Italia). “The doctors are only at work to verify the presence of any other positivity in the Juventus group.”