Guardiola And Assistant Test Positive For Covid, Club Struggles With Outbreak

Manchester City have announced that Pep Guardiola has tested positive for Covid amongst other squad members and staff.

The City boss along with seven first-team players, his assistant Juanma Lillo and other backroom staff are all said to be affected as the club struggles with Covid outbreak.

The Spaniard is now forced to go into isolation and would not be in the dugout for the FA Cup third-round clash against Swindon on Friday. Guardiola’s assistant, Juanma Lillo, has also tested positive for Covid

The club broke the news via a statement which reads:

“The City manager [Guardiola] recorded a positive [Covid] test on Tuesday along with assistant Juanma Lillo. Both are now isolating, along with a number of other positive cases within the City first team bubble.

“This brings the number of those isolating for Covid related reasons amongst the group to 21. Of that number, 14 are backroom staff and seven are first-team players.”

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Despite the Covid outbreak, the match against Swindon will still go ahead. Former Liverpool coach Rodolfo Borrell will take charge of City’s encounter with the League Two side.

Borell may also be in charge when Manchester City face Chelsea in the Premier League on January 15.

The 50-year-old, famous for spending 13 years working in Barcelona’s La Masia academy, has been at City since 2014. He became a part of Guardiola’s coaching team when the Spaniard took over at the club in 2016.

Since Guardiola tested positive for Covid, it is not certain how many matches the Spaniard will miss.

The isolation period in England has been shortened from 10 days to seven days which puts his likely return date to about a week from now. However, there’s no telling if his symptoms would have improved or worsened by then.

City have Swindon, Chelsea and Southampton as their next three fixtures. It is still unclear how much the outbreak would affect the squad, their performance and the club as a whole.

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