ROME – AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, reported Xinhua news agency.
The news came a day after Ibrahimovic’s teammate Leo Duarte, a defender from Brazil, also tested positive for the disease.
The back-to-back cases mean that AC Milan will have to play without two of its highest-paid stars as the team seeks to improve upon its sixth-place finish in a 2019-20 Serie A season that was paused for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sweden’s Ibrahimovic, 38, scored twice in AC Milan’s 2-0 win over Bologna in its opening game of the new season.
Duarte tested positive after a round of testing on Tuesday. According to Serie A rules, a positive test in any team automatically triggers a second round of testing, after which Ibrahimovic tested positive.
In a social media post, Ibrahimovic said he showed no symptoms of COVID-19, and he vowed to recover quickly.
In a statement, AC Milan said Italian health authorities had been informed and that both Ibrahimovic and Duarte had been placed under home quarantine. All other players and officials with the team tested negative.
Ibrahimovic’s latest contract, reportedly worth EUR7 million (US$8.4 million), brought him back to AC Milan in January following an initial stint with the team between 2010 and 2012 during which he scored 42 goals. Before his return to Italy, Ibrahimovic had played for LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer in the US.
Ibrahimovic began his professional career playing for Sweden’s Malmo FF in 1999, where he scored 16 goals in two seasons.
–BERNAMA
