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Napoli will not travel to Turin for their Serie A clash with Juventus on Sunday after two of their players tested positive for COVID-19, sources told ESPN.
Piotr Zielinski and Eljif Elmas tested positive after routine coronavirus tests and the entire Napoli team is in isolation.
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The Campania region has seen a recent spike in coronavirus cases and local authorities have not allowed the team to travel, according to ESPN sources.
Sources said the plane was on the runway and ready to take off for Turin, while they awaited a response to their request to travel, as there may be exceptions to the rule.
The match has not been suspended by Serie A and Juve is preparing to take the field despite the absence of their opponents, the sources said. This would lead to a 3-0 victory for Andrea Pirlo’s team.
Napoli had requested that the match be postponed and replayed at a later date, but that was rejected by Serie A.
In a statement, league officials said: “The same rule was applied to other cases in the past and, for example, it allowed Torino to play Atalanta, the trip from Milan to Crotone, Genoa’s away game in the San Paolo vs. Napoli and Atalanta Game at home against Cagliari.
Napoli’s former rival Genoa had 10 positive players after their clash on Sunday, which resulted in the postponement of this weekend’s clash with Torino.
However, all Napoli’s players tested negative immediately thereafter, before Zielinski and later Elmas tested positive.
