La Liga, Spain's top football league, has been suspended while football club Real Madrid sent all its football and basketball players home into quarantine after one of the sports club's basketball players tested positive for the new coronavirus.

"Real Madrid CF announces that a player from our basketball team has tested positive after undergoing tests for coronavirus COVID-19," said the statement on the club's official website on Thursday.

"From now, the club has followed the recommendation of placing the basketball and football teams into quarantine as the two squads share facilities at the club's training ground.

"We have also decided to close our training ground and recommended that all staff who work at the facility remain in quarantine."

The announcement led the next two rounds of matches in Spain's top division to be postponed by the organising body, including Real's match at home to Eibar, which had been due to take place on Friday without spectators.

All national league basketball games have also been postponed, Real's statement added.

The number of confirmed cases of the infection topped 124,000 globally, and the World Health Organization declared the global crisis is now a pandemic.