St Mirren have confirmed a second player has tested positive for Covid-19 after Jak Alnwick contracted the virus earlier this week.
Manager Jim Goodwin revealed on Thursday, ahead of this weekend’s match with Hibernian, that goalkeeper Alnwick had tested positive for coronavirus, and now another team-mate is to join him in self-isolating.
An official club statement read: “Following the most recent round of Covid testing, St Mirren Football Club can confirm that a second player has tested positive for Covid-19. This comes following the news of the positive test earlier this week.
“The club can confirm that it has followed all protocol to the letter and has informed all relevant authorities.”
St Mirren announced on Thursday morning that an unnamed player was self-isolating in line with government guidance and would be unavailable for the match against Hibernian.
It was then revealed by Hamilton that defender Lee Hodson, who it emerged is Alnwick’s housemate, had entered a two-week period of self-isolation.
Boss Goodwin put no blame on his 27-year-old goalkeeper.
He said: “We obviously don’t like naming names, I think it’s quite a private issue but at the same time somebody has managed to leak it online so there’s no point us denying it.
“I think it’ll be perfectly clear to everyone when the team is selected on Saturday.
“So we’re a bit disappointed for Jak but at the same time he’s doing well, he’s recovering, he’s following the instructions given to him by the doctor.
“He is getting the best of treatment, we are not overly concerned about it and hopefully he will be back fit for the Dundee United game.
“This is something that’s just going to continue to happen throughout the course of the season as long as this virus is here, then, footballers and every other member of the public will continue to get it.
“We are confident Jak has not been in a pub or a nightclub when he shouldn’t have been. It is just an unfortunate situation.”
The Buddies boss stressed that St Mirren have stuck by the rules in terms of making their training ground and stadium safe areas.
He said: “What I can say from our point of view as a club, there’s no way that Jak has picked it up while he’s been here at Ralston (training ground) or down at the stadium.
“The club have done everything they can, they’ve followed the strict guidelines that have been set out by the SFA, the SPFL and the Joint Response Group and we can’t do any more as a club.
“Players and the staff members, everybody needs to go home and some of our partners and wives are going out to work every day.
“I’ve got three kids at home or going to school on a daily basis and mixing with hundreds of other children.
“So we can only do what we can within the environment that we work in.
“We can’t unfortunately control everything, so it’s just been a really unfortunate situation, but as a football club we can’t do any more.”
