With the return of the Premier League only a week away, Tottenham Hotspur have been hit by the news that Son Heung-min will have to quarantine because four of his South Korean team-mates have tested positive for coronavirus.
Spurs’ next two fixtures in the English top flight are away at Manchester City and home to Chelsea, and Jose Mourinho would surely have preferred to have a player available who, along with Harry Kane, has propelled the north Londoners up the table.
Son is now stuck in his hotel room in Austria, unable to play in South Korea’s match against Mexico.
According to the Daily Mail, the Korean Football Association have confirmed that goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo, midfielders Kwon Chang-hoon and Hwang In-beom and forward Lee Dong-jun, as well as an unidentified member of staff, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
The situation brings into sharper focus the need to, perhaps, stop international football until a vaccine can be found for the virus.
If the governing bodies insist on games repeatedly going ahead, then national team players will be consistently running the risk of contracting the virus as a result.