Just right after the completion of Round 1 in the Euroleague, COVID-19 hits without letting some of the teams follow their regular training program. With Euroleague sticking to their initial plan and not considering, at the moment, the idea of a “bubble”, it is interesting to see how this season will continue with COVID-19 threatening the completion of each round.
CSKA Moscow is one of the teams that have seriously been affected by coronavirus with three positive cases. Nikola Milutinov, Janis Strelnieks and Semen Antonov are the three players that have tested positive for the coronavirus and missed the first round of the Euroleague.
After Round 1 and their first home game against Panathinaikos OPAP, Khimki Moscow is seeing three of its players being affected by the coronavirus. Janis Timma, Jordan Mickey and Evgeny Voronov have tested positive for COVID-19 after the game against Panathinaikos and will stay in isolation missing the second round of the Euroleague.
Barcelona is also another team that has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. After Round 1, coach Saras Jasikevicius and his assistant Darius Maskoliunas have both tested positive for Covid-19 in the latest PCR tests. It is interesting to see what will happen in the second round since the role of the head coach is crucial for the team especially when the club is missing the assistant coach too due to the virus.
Euroleague is already counting 8 positive cases after the first round. We don’t really know how many other players and coaches have been affected and not mentioned but it is interesting to see how this Euroleague season will continue under the threat of this global pandemic.
