Italy women’s national football team have pulled out of the final of the Algarve Cup and will be flying home on Wednesday amid concerns coronavirus disruption to flights would have left them stranded in Portugal.

As late as Tuesday evening, the Italian Football Federation were confident that the women’s side would be able to compete in the final of the competition - an eight-team invitational tournament hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation - against Germany. They had chartered a private flight - one of the first times it has done so for its women’s side - to ease players’ fears over travel disruption.

However, the governing body about-turned later in the evening and made the decision to bring the players home early given the uncertainty around flight schedules. On Tuesday, for instance, the Spanish government said in an official state bulletin that it was suspending all direct flights from airports in Italy to Spain until March 25.

“The situation is no charter company can guarantee more than the day of tomorrow to bring them back directly,” Ludovica Mantovani, the president of the women’s division at the Italian Football Federation, told Telegraph Sport. “Because of what happened in Spain today, it’s not now blocked in Portugal - but nobody can guarantee more than tomorrow morning because the flight schedules are all changing day by day. They’re flying back tomorrow morning for that reason, because nobody can guarantee us.

“The girls wanted to play and the head coach wanted to play, but we needed to guarantee them coming back home. It’s a decision that has been taken for the health of everybody - for them being secure and home.

"The players have to be in the best condition that nothing happens to them and their families - that’s the priority right now."