Report: Inter Miami player tested positive for COVID-19 as team heads into playoffs
An unnamed Inter Miami player tested positive for COVID-19, according to Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner and a few other outlets, who reported that Miami defender Alvas Powell was called up to the Jamaican Reggae Boyz national team to travel to Saudi Arabia this week for two games but did not go “as one of his teammates at his club, Inter Miami, tested positive for the virus and he is deemed to be compromised.”
Inter Miami had no comment on the reports. The team clinched a playoff berth with the win on Sunday and will play its opening-round game on the road at Nashville SC on Nov. 20.
Powell played in Sunday’s 2-1 win over FC Cincinnati, which means that he tested negative on his COVID-19 test on Saturday and was cleared to play. All players and coaches are tested the night before games and the day after. Anyone who tests positive is required to self-isolate and is not allowed in the stadium or training grounds.
One player who was notably absent from the roster and the stadium was defender/midfielder Brek Shea, who was listed as “not medically cleared,” which is the wording MLS clubs have used this season in injury reports for players who test positive.
Shea had missed the two previous games with an undisclosed injury suffered at home, but coach Diego Alonso said last Thursday that Shea had recovered from that injury, had practiced and would be ready to play on Sunday.
When an MLS player tests positive, the club does contact tracing to figure out who that player had close contact with and then those people are sent home to self-quarantine and tested until they produce back-to-back negative results and are asymptomatic.
Two other Inter Miami players have dealt with COVID-19 this season. Defender Christian Makoun tested positive in mid-June and then suffered residual effects that kept him out of action for a few months.
“I tested positive for COVID-19 some weeks ago,” Makoun wrote on Instagram in July. “I am already cleared of it but unfortunately it left some residuals. I feel good knowing that if God allowed it, it is to change something in me and prepare me for my purpose. I want to return to the field soon with my teammates, of whom I am very proud. Good things await us, we just have to be strong and not lose the faith.”
French midfielder Blaise Matuidi, who joined Inter Miami from Italian club Juventus in August, also tested positive in March in Italy. Matuidi said the bout with the virus helped sway him to take the offer from Inter Miami and continue his career in the United States.
“Being one of the first players to test positive for this virus made me reflect on the meaning of life,” he said in an interview with L’Equipe. “Staying in quarantine made my bond with my family stronger and made me realize I had to think more about them and what is best for my children.”
He asked Juventus to terminate his contract a year early, and he signed with Miami.
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 11:00 PM.