Dhe England national soccer team Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount must be isolated from the rest of the team until next Monday. Due to this decision by the health authority PHE, the two pros of Chelsea FC not only miss the final European Championship preliminary round match of the Three Lions on Tuesday evening (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship and live on ARD and Magenta TV) against the Czech Republic. The Englishmen who have already qualified for the knockout round will also miss Chilwell and Mount in the round of 16. It could go against the German team, the British qualify first in their group D and Germany as second in group F.
The loss of Mount is particularly painful, the professional from Chelsea FC is one of the regulars of team manager Gareth Southgate and has been one of the strongest so far. The players could not be back with the team until the quarter-finals (July 2nd and 3rd) at the earliest. But they would probably not be ready for action there due to the long break. “That’s ridiculous! Just test it, ”tweeted England’s ex-international Gary Lineker in a first reaction.
Scotland’s shooting star Gilmour had tested positive after the “Battle of Britain” at Wembley Stadium on Friday, the Scottish Association confirmed on Monday. Mount and Chilwell had been talking to their Chelsea teammate Gilmour for a long time after the game and were standing close together. The FA and the health authorities have been in close contact since then. It was necessary to clarify whether the contact of the trio is sufficient to fall under the quarantine regulation. In such cases, the authorities provide for ten days of isolation – this now applies retrospectively from Friday, i.e. from the day of contact.
Team manager Gareth Southgate said on Monday evening that he didn’t know yet. “Of course that’s anything but good preparation,” he said, referring to the game against the Czech Republic. It also raised questions about why only Mount and Chilwell are considered contacts. After all, Gilmour had traveled with his team, but the Scots were allowed to prepare for their last game in Group D against Croatia on Tuesday evening (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship) without any major debates.
“I don’t know exactly what the rules are,” said Southgate. “I only understood it to mean that contacts on the pitch, during a game, are not enough or not close enough to be contagious.”
England had performed the mandatory PCR tests on Sunday and received consistently negative results. So the team completed regular training on Monday – with Chilwell and Mount. It was only after Scotland announced Gilmour’s test result that the two were isolated. “As a precaution,” as the association announced. Further tests, which the British then carried out, did not produce any positive results.
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