England duo Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount must isolate up to and including next Monday, the Football Association has announced.
The Three Lions’ preparations for Tuesday’s final Group D match were thrown into chaos when it emerged that the Chelsea pair had been in contact with Scotland’s Billy Gilmour, who tested positive for coronavirus.
Mount and Chilwell will now miss the pool decider at Wembley and could also miss England’s last-16 match, with qualification assured but their place in the group up in the air.
The Football Association said in a statement: “We can confirm that Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount must isolate up to and including next Monday [28 June]. This decision has been taken in consultation with Public Health England.
“The pair were confirmed overnight as close contacts of Scotland’s Billy Gilmour after his positive test following last Friday’s match.”
The statement continued: “Chilwell and Mount will isolate and train individually in private areas at England’s training base St. George’s Park, with the rest of the squad returning there after tonight’s fixture against Czech Republic at Wembley.
“We will continue to follow all Covid-19 protocols and the UEFA testing regime, while remaining in close contact with PHE.
“The entire England squad and staff had lateral flow tests on Monday and all were again negative, as was the case with Sunday’s UEFA pre-match PCR tests. Further tests will be carried out as and when appropriate.”
It comes after the Scottish Football Association announced on Monday that Champions League winner Gilmour will have to quarantine for the next 10 days.
“The Scottish FA can confirm that a member of the Scotland national team playing squad, Billy Gilmour, has tested positive for Covid-19,” the SFA said in a statement.
“Having liaised with Public Health England since the positive test was recorded, Billy will now self-isolate for 10 days and therefore miss tomorrow’s UEFA Euro 2020 Group D match against Croatia at Hampden.”
The other 25 players in the Scotland squad trained on Monday morning and all tested negative from precautionary lateral flow tests immediately afterwards. Gilmour tested positive after a PCR test on Sunday.
England qualified for the knockout phase of Euro 2020 after results in Groups B and C ensured Gareth Southgate’s side would finish as – at worst – one of the four best third-placed teams.
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