On the same day it was announced that MLS would return to play, it was also revealed that an unidentified player had contracted COVID-19.
FC Dallas announced on Wednesday afternoon that one of its players has tested positive for the coronavirus. The team did not reveal which player it was, but stated that he was in good health.
As a result of this development, FC Dallas has temporarily suspended its voluntary individual workouts.
The unnamed player is the second in MLS to be diagnosed with COVID-19. Philadelphia Union forward Kacper Przybylko was the first, having tested positive for the virus back in March.
Major League Soccer and the MLS Players Association came to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement deal earlier on Wednesday, paving the way for a return to play via a summer tournament in Orlando, Florida.
“Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”
-Unforgiven
The serial interval for covid — the amount of days from infection to infection — is like 4.7. The incubation period — infection to illness — is 6-14 days. This is primed to be a disease spread in significant part by pre- and a-symptomatic people. The constant drumbeat of “but I don’t feel sick” misses the point. And while it may kill mostly people with pre-existing conditions or the elderly, such talk tends to miss whom it hospitalizes. Having had pneumonia twice as a child, I find the glib talk amusing. I understand the drives behind reopening the league, but we remain the sickest, deadliest country in the world on this thing. Comparing ourselves to Germany and saying let’s open like them is naive. We haven’t earned that right by stamping this out.
Germany’s new case counts per week are in the 100s. Germany’s new death counts per week are in the 10s. There are places like Taiwan where the total cases are in the 100s and they don’t even have 10 deaths. Yes, they have earned sports back. We have not. We are spoiled rotten.
Once regular testing of players begins we will see. If we start seeing increases in these reports of players then it will need to be looked at. If it’s one every two months, the current rate, it seems reasonable. I don’t believe there has been any evidence of player to player transmission during matches or of any of the auxiliary staff getting it from match days in Germany: