Roma fans wearing face masks before their clash with Lecce amid concern following a coronavirus outbreak in Italy (Picture: Reuters)

A Serie C player in Italy has been diagnosed with the coronavirus making him the first professional footballer to contract the disease in the country, according to reports.

Italian newspaper La Nazione report a 22-year-old footballer, who has not been named but plays for US Pianese ASD, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization.

Pianese ASD play in the Serie C and are based in the commune of Piancastagnaio located in the Tuscany region of western Italy.

The report claims the footballer ‘put himself in voluntary quarantine’ before doctors decided to test him for the virus which has now reportedly come back as positive for COVID-19.




There have been no reports of other footballers who play with the 22-year-old testing positive for the virus since his diagnosis.

The footballer reportedly ‘had a fever and felt unwell’ before the start of a match when he opted to put himself in quarantine.

He did not play in Pianese’s 1-0 loss to Juventus U-23 in a Serie C match on Sunday 23rd February.

The infected footballer reportedly returned to Piancastagnaio ‘independently’. Despite the diagnosis, the player’s status is ‘good: he is OK but he tested positive,’ according to La Nazione.

The news comes after several Serie A matches were cancelled due to the outbreak and several matches being played behind closed doors, including the match between Italian club giants Juventus and Inter Milan set for Sunday 1st March.

Italy has had a reported 447 cases of COVID-19, causing the death of 14 people. There are reportedly 82,455 worldwide cases which have lead to 2,811 deaths.

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