London. The two English internationals Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell are not available to their team for the time being. Because they had contact with the Scotsman Billy Gilmour, who tested positive for the corona virus, the duo must be in isolation until Monday by order of the authorities. This was confirmed by the English FA on Tuesday, just a few hours before the group final (after the editorial deadline) against the Czech Republic. The loss of Mount in particular hurts the team; he is one of the regulars of coach Gareth Southgate and has so far been one of the strongest in England’s team.
The 22-year-old and the two-year-old Chilwell not only missed the last group game, but also the round of 16, which the English safely reached thanks to the favorable results in groups B and C on Monday evening, at least before the game against the Czechs had. The two players could now be back in the quarter-finals (July 2nd and 3rd) at the earliest. It is more than questionable whether they will be ready for action after the longer break.
Scotland’s young star Gilmour had tested positive after the duel at Wembley Stadium on Friday, the Scottish Association confirmed on Monday. Mount and Chilwell had talked to their teammate from Chelsea for a long time after the game and stood close together.
The decision of the health authorities to send the duo into ten-day isolation – this applies retrospectively from Friday – raises the question of why only Mount and Chilwell are considered contact persons. After all, Gilmour had traveled to London with his team, but the Scots were allowed to prepare for their last game in Group D against Croatia without any quarantine measures.
“I don’t know exactly what the rules are,” said England’s irritated coach 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 had informed about Gilmour’s test result that the two were still isolated. “As a precaution,” the association announced. Further tests, which the British then carried out, again yielded no positive results. SID / nd
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