The Indian men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh and four other players have tested positive for Covid-19 but the national camp will resume in Bengaluru as scheduled with those who are fit to train, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) said on Friday.
Besides Manpreet, defender Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, drag-flicker Varun Kumar and goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak have also tested positive for the dreaded virus.
The players tested positive after returning to the national hockey camp at the SAI South Centre in Bengaluru following a month-long break.
A SAI source, however, said that the camp will resume from August 20 as planned with the fit players.
“As of now the camp is on and will resume as planned. The fit players can start their individual training and the players who have tested positive for Covid can resume later after recovering but they will have to pass a fitness test,” the source said.
According to the SAI source all the players who have tested positive were part of a 10-member group who have travelled together and there are chances of more positve results come out.
The SAI further said that all the five players initially tested negative in the rapid test.
But when Manpreet and Surender began to show some Covid-19 symptoms, they along with 10 other players, who had travelled together, were made to undergo the Quantitative RT-PCR test on Thursday.
“...And the five have been found to be Covid positive. Though the test results have still not been handed over to SAI, but the state Government has informed the test results to the SAI authorities,” the SAI said.