Zambian midfield sensation Enock Mwepu could still travel for the back to back Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Botswana after a new set of tests by the club showed that all the Redbull Salzburg players were negative.
The club confirmed the new twist in the story in a statement on their official website monitored by the ZamFoot Crew.
Having put the players through two series of Covid-19 tests on Friday morning (all negative) and Sunday evening (six positive cases) FC Red Bull Salzburg today – at their own initiative – completed another set of tests. This led to negative results for all players!
Redbull Salzburg Chief Commercial Officer Stephan Reiter says the team will do everything in it’s power to end the current restrictions and allow the International players to report for duty.
“We will do everything we possibly can to end the current restrictions [isolation measures and team quarantine] to allow all our international players to report for duty. We hope that the travel ban imposed on them by the authorities can be lifted as soon as possible,” he said.
“We also want to find out why the last two sets of Covid-19 tests, which were conducted by the same lab in Salzburg, produced such different results. We have to find answers to this as it makes a mockery of the comprehensive and professional efforts of FC Red Bull Salzburg to stick to all the required virus-prevention measures,” he added.
Salzburg had earlier rejected all international call-ups for players after a COVID-19 test allegedly revealed that they had six positives cases in their squad. The team put the players in mandatory quarantine which knocked out Enock Mwepu from the back to back games.
The Player had even given hope of joining his teammates after the news that Salzburg had six positives cases and he took to social media to wish the team well in his absence.
It's sad that I can't represent Zambia in the back to back #AfconQualifiers against Botswana due to #Covid19 restrictions but I believe in every difficulty there's opportunity. Time for the new
lads in the squad to step up!#TogetherWeWin#OneZambiaOneNation🇿🇲#Twalipalwa🙏🏾#EM pic.twitter.com/shyQGZbQiY— Enock Mwepu (@EnockMwepu45) November 9, 2020
Looks like this is going to be a recurring theme with quarantine, just about every team will have the same issues, hopefully Algeria will be too ill to play well since just about all their players are in France, Spain etc.
Hoping to see F Sakala and E Chabula perform as the frontline. A completely new back line will be tested by the Zebras, who are no pushovers.
So true @GSK. Botswana drew with Zimbabwe and only lost 1-0 to Algeria. This is a team which can cause us problems.
That’s why Zambia needs all it’s best players for the these games. Triple C, N.Sinkala… Just saying
I saw something on twitter that Enock Mwepu is on his way to Zamba. Someone from ZAMFOOT please investigate. How true is this?
I read on the @ChipolopoloDiehards TWitter Handle.
Mwepu, the last option in our state must be a must or else we will fail to win.