Lazio medic Fabio Rodia confirms the club has ‘some doubts’ after the UEFA swabs found several COVID-19 cases in the squad ahead of their Club Brugge trip.
The Champions League fixture kicks off in Belgium tonight at 20.00 GMT, but 12 senior players were left behind in Rome and there is still no official statement explaining why.
“As per the UEFA protocol, the squad has anti-COVID swabs two days before a game,” Dr Rodia told Lazio Style Radio.
“In Monday’s tests, some situations emerged. In order to protect its layers, the club immediately placed the dubious cases in their respective homes.
“Over the next few days, we will perform more tests to evaluate and clarify the situation. The club had to follow he UEFA protocol and leave these players at home, despite there being some doubts over the results.
“The others are all fine, we feel optimistic and ready for this match.”
Inter were already enraged with UEFA last week when Achraf Hakimi was ruled out of the Borussia Dortmund match by a COVID-19 test.
It emerged the UEFA test had a very low viral load, so much that two further tests over the next couple of days came up negative.
Hakimi was therefore a ‘false positive’ test and Lazio are concerned such a huge sudden outbreak in their squad was created by similar situations.
The UEFA swab tests are performed in a different laboratory to the Serie A tests, and would appear to be more sensitive, or more susceptible to errors.
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