Portsmouth pair struck down by coronavirus after Chelsea encounter - and miss Peterborough friendly

The duo have tested positive for the pandemic and missed today’s 2-0 victory over Peterborough as a consequence.

Danny Cowley declined to identify the players concerned, however the pair were conspicuous by their absence from Fratton Park.

Gavin Bazunu and Gassan Ahadme were also not included in the squad, yet watched the game from the South stand as they nursed knocks.

Both Harrison and Mnoga featured against Chelsea under-23s on Tuesday evening, but were diagnosed in the days after.

The fresh coronavirus cases is the latest blow to hit Pompey’s pre-season, but Cowley is confident it has been contained.

He told The News: ‘We test on a regular basis every time the group come out of the bubble, we then test as soon as they come back in.

‘We found the cases really early, we had no other symptoms. We have obviously tested every day since and haven't picked up any further ones, which has been a real positive.

‘We are hoping we can now move forward, but obviously when you are this close to the start of the season it is natural concerning.

‘I don’t think we can name them because we have to respect their privacy, as you can imagine. You have probably worked it out from those not involved today.

‘The players that we're speaking about actually have Covid. We had the lateral flow tests and they were positive, then the PCR tests off the back of that and they were again positive.

‘That’s the first challenge, there’s a lot of TLC, a lot of rest and recuperation and trying to get as much fluids as we can to try to flush the virus out of the system as soon as we can.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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