Torino announced that today’s training session will not take place as imposed by the local health officials due to possible additional Coronavirus cases within the club. Alessandro Buongiorno, Nicola Murru and Karol Linetty got infected last week and Repubblica reports that three more players, including Andrea Belotti, tested positive yesterday, putting Friday’s match versus Sassuolo in jeopardy.
The whole squad will self-isolate at home while they wait for further results since the outbreak is not considered under control. While Buongiorno and Murru were ruled out ahead of the Cagliari game, Linetty travelled with the team and was excluded only on game-day because of an inconclusive swab and his positivity was confirmed a day later.
The COVID-19 protocol agreed upon by Serie A and the Federation indicates that a side has the faculty to ask for a postponement only once during the season if ten players got infected over the last seven days leading up to a game. Torino still has this possibility. After exhausting that option, they are forced to participate if they have 13 men at their disposal, as per the UEFA rules.
However, as the case involving the Round 2 clash between Juventus and Napoli made abundantly clear, the decisions by the local health officials supersede the guidelines. They can indirectly forbid a match from taking place by ordering the footballers to avoid having outside contacts for a certain period of time to contain the spread of the disease.