LASK boss admits coronavirus blow ahead of Spurs match

LASK head coach Dominik Thalhammer has revealed one member of his playing squad has not travelled to London for the Europa League group game with Tottenham after testing positive for coronavirus.

Jose Mourinho’s side face their Austrian opponents tomorrow night in the opening match of the UEFA Europa League group stage campaign.

The unnamed player has remained at home in Austria undergoing quarantine and is displaying no symptoms with Thalhammer is content that all relevant protocols have been followed.

While Thalhammer insisted that it has caused no disruption to their plans for the game, he did reveal that they have travelled to London earlier than originally planned.

Tottenham have experienced a gruelling European campaign already having come through three qualification stages which saw the club face Lokomotiv Plovdiv, SK Shkendija and Maccabi Haifa.

Spurs have already confirmed that Eric Dier and Japhet Tanganga have been ruled out of the match through injury (Spurs official).

“It was yesterday evening,” Thalhammer told Yahoo at his pre-match press conference.

“It did not disrupt us. This particular player, he did not travel with the team, we have done lots of coronavirus testing and it was all negative, but when I discovered that one player was positive then we tested again.

“Only players with negative tests were able to travel to London.

“We wanted to give the English the security that we have done everything and it is important for us.

“Other clubs we hear about individual cases but we were very cautious and for this reason we aren’t particularly concerned, but we did change the plan and travelled earlier.”