Napoli striker, Victor Osimhen has been confirmed positive with COVID-19 infection. It has been understood that the Italian club revealed the player’s Coronavirus test result on Thursday.
The development is coming amid contention by Napoli on whether to or not allow the Nigerian player to represent his home county in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations games about to kick off in 10 days in Cameroon.
Osimhen, however, is now in self-isolation as his status is being checked as recommended.
An official statement released by Napoli read: “Napoli has announced that Victor Osimhen has tested positive for Covid-19 but is asymptomatic. Dr. Tartaro was due to perform a check-up on the player tomorrow.
Consequently, the local authorities have ordered that Osimhen self-isolate and the check-up will be rescheduled after he has tested negative and his period of isolation ends.”
There have also been disagreements between Napoli and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over the match fitness of Osimhen, who was recently listed in Augustine Eguavoen’s 28-man AFCON squad.
The former Wolfsburg player is also still recovering from a facial injury he sustained during an Italian league game.
But a source close to the player disclosed that Osimhen has informed Eguavoen to drop him from the squad going to Cameroon for the biennial tournament so he “could fully recover from the injury”.
Another source also said Osimhen opted out of the tournament to allow peace to reign between his club and the NFF.
“Osimhen has made a call to Eguavoen to pull out of the Nations Cup due to all the back and forth over his release for the tournament,” the source said.
“He is tired from all that’s been happening over his release for the AFCON.
Yesterday, he was supposed to have left for his club to show his loyalty and to also play the Juventus match on January 6 but his PCR test came back positive.
He feels devastated because since he came into Nigeria, he’s been keeping safe but now he tested positive. He has to recover first.”
