Bosnian FA Confirm Sead Kolasinac Has Tested Positive for COVID-19
By Adam Aladay
The Bosnian Football Federation have confirmed that Arsenal defender Sead Kolasinac has been ruled out of their clash with Italy on Wednesday as he has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Kolasinac started his nation's 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands in the Nations League on Sunday, but will be unable to face Italy on Wednesday. Bosnia come into the game sat bottom of Group A1 with two points after five games. Their next opponents, meanwhile, top the group and are one point ahead of the Netherlands.
The Bosnian FA have now confirmed on their official website that the Arsenal defender will not be able to play any part against Italy on Wednesday after testing positive on Wednesday morning.
Kolasinac had trained normally on Tuesday, but was left out of the session on Wednesday morning as they awaited the results of his test. This comes after goalkeeper Ibrahim Sehic tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
A brief statement read: "After Ibrahim Sehic, another member of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be able to play against Italy tonight [Wednesday] due to the coronavirus. It is about Sead Kolasinac who was retested this morning.
"The results of that test have just arrived, which show that our defender is positive for the SARS-Cov-2 virus."
Kolasinac becomes the latest player to contract the virus while away on international duty and will now have to enter into a period of self isolation. He'll also need to return a negative result before being able to return to club action with Arsenal.
The 27-year-old's positive result comes after teammate Mohamed Elneny also tested positive while away with Egypt. Kolasinac has made just the seven appearances in all competitions so far in 2020/21, and has started just one Premier League game.
This came against West Ham back in September, and he has struggled to even make the substitutes bench in the matches since then.
But now needing to self isolate, he will not be in contention to feature for his side when they travel to take on Leeds United on Sunday. The north Londoners are then back in Europa League action as they take on Molde.