Manchester United suffers COVID-19 outbreak; players, staff test positive, sent home from training

Manchester United is the latest Premier League club to suffer an outbreak of COVID-19, Goal understands.

A number of players and staff returned postive lateral flow tests Sunday morning and were sent home from training.

There are now fears the outbreak could spread even further, putting Tuesday’s Premier League trip to Brentford in serious doubt.

What do we know?

Goal understands the whole group that traveled to Norwich on Saturday tested negative in the latest round of routine tests.

However, a fresh round of lateral flow testing Sunday morning returned a small number of postive tests among players and staff.

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Those who had tested positive were subsequently sent home, with the Premier League informed of the situation.

Those who remained outdoors with the training schedule adjusted to individual and non-contact sessions.

What happens next?

The next step for the players and staff who tested positive on Sunday morning is to wait for the results of PCR tests.

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In July, the club had a COVID scare when nine players and staff recorded positive lateral flow tests, which forced the cancellation of a preseason friendly against Preston North End.

Consequent PCR tests came back negative and the initial results were deemed false positives.

COVID concern

News of this latest outbreak comes just days after Tottenham’s Europa Conference League tie against Rennes on Thursday was postponed after 13 Spurs players and staff tested positive for the virus.

Sunday’s Premier League match against Brighton was also called off as a precaution.

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Norwich boss Dean Smith revealed on Friday that he was awaiting on the results of COVID tests after a number of players fell ill, although it was not confirmed whether any player had subsequently tested positive.