AS Saint-Etienne continue to be decimated by a Covid-19 outbreak which means seven first-team players will miss Sunday’s huge derby fixture against Olympique Lyonnais.
A total of 10 players and eight staff members tested positive for coronavirus prior to last week’s game at RC Strasbourg Alsace, where Saint-Etienne were forced to send out a much-changed side - with four players aged 20 or under - and lost 1-0.
On Friday general manager Claude Puel - who has himself been self-isolating after testing positive - admitted things are improving ahead of the derby, but only just.
“I have been tested again and am negative. One of our players has also been tested again and is now negative but we have two new positive cases. In total there are seven players who are positive and so are unavailable for the match,” Puel said.
Puel did not names, although among the players missing last weekend were senior squad members like Harold Moukoudi, Timothée Kolodziejczak, Mathieu Debuchy, Yvan Neyou, Denis Bouanga and Romain Hamouma. Despite the chaos caused by the outbreak, Puel insisted he would send out a side capable of competing with his former club.
“We will be ready. We will see at training on Saturday if we can get any of our injured players back. We are going through an unusual time but the players must not be unsettled by it all. I want us to make our supporters happy, whatever team we put out.”
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