Arsenal has announced that head coach Mikel Arteta has tested positive for coronavirus.
The news was announced just after Premier League’s statement that matches will go ahead as scheduled this weekend – but the news about Arteta forced Premier League to have an emergency meeting tomorrow regarding future fixtures.
The Premier League will convene an emergency club meeting tomorrow morning regarding fixtures after Mikel Arteta tested positive for COVID-19
Statement: https://t.co/ofi5DhIQZM pic.twitter.com/RmnxRHXooz
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 12, 2020
The Gunners closed their training ground as a precaution and club staff who had recent contact with Arteta will now self-isolate.
In a statement, Arsenal said: “Our London Colney training centre has been closed after head coach Mikel Arteta received a positive COVID-19 result this evening.
“Arsenal personnel who had recent close contact with Mikel will now self-isolate in line with Government health guidelines. We expect this to be a significant number of people from Colney, including the full first-team squad and coaching staff, as well as a smaller number of people from our Hale End Academy which we have also temporarily closed as a precaution.
“We expect those who did not have close contact with Mikel to return to work in the coming days. In the meantime our Colney and Hale End training centres will undergo a deep clean and our other club sites are operating as normal.”
Head of football Raul Sanllehi added: “Mikel and the full first-team squad, players and staff, will be fully supported, and we look forward to getting back to training and playing as soon as medical advice allows. Obviously Mikel’s full recovery is the priority now for us all.”
Arteta added: “This is really disappointing but I took the test after feeling poorly. I will be at work as soon as I’m allowed.”
