FIFA regulations stipulate a team must have 13 available players for a match to go ahead and South Africa coach David Notoane said the daily testing means he has no idea who will be able to take the field to face the Japanese.
“You are not even sure who will be eligible for your (starting) 11 because of the situation we are in, testing every day,” he told reporters about the team, who returned to training on Monday after a week off the pitch.
“Their (Japan’s) physical readiness compared to us will be a key issue. It will make a huge difference. We basically lost seven days and that is hard to recover from.”
There have been 58 positive cases of Olympics-linked athletes, staff or officials recorded in Japan this month.
On Monday, a Czech beach volleyball player tested positive at the Olympic Village while an alternate for the US women’s gymnastics team tested positive at the site of their pre-Games training camp just outside Tokyo. -Reuters