The German Football Association (their FA equivalent known as the DFB) have officially announced that the Duisburg Health Department have approved the entry of Premier League players.
The March international break sees Germany play both their World Cup qualifiers, against Iceland and North Macedonia respectively, in Duisburg, with the city now outlining some Covid-19 exemptions.
Duisburg’s health department have set out guidelines to allow for entry for anyone to the City from Great Britain who would need so to carry out their profession, this does not only apply to the footballers.
The DFB then outline that anyone travelling to the city will need to submit a negative Covid-19 PCR test – which must be no older than 24 hours after they depart Great Britain.
The decision means that Chelsea stars like the in-form Antonio Rudiger and summer recruits Timo Werner and Kai Havertz can now serve their national team, as well as Arsenal star Bernd Leno.
The DFB state that daily tests will also take place, whilst ‘work-quarantine’ measures have been set out for players to adhere to outside of the matches and training.
It’s added that Joachim Low, who will leave his post as the Mannschaft’s manager after Euro 2020, will name his squad for the international break on Friday.
It will be interesting to see how Chelsea and Arsenal react to news, with some of their players the most high-profile that are impacted by these official exemptions.
Chelsea’s stance regarding Havertz could be particularly interesting, the marquee summer signing tested positive back in November and admitted to being ‘hit hard’ by the effects of the virus, via BBC.
It’s something that Thomas Tuchel and Mikel Arteta will not have wanted to be worrying about at the business end of the season.