Unfortunately, most of the football news in the last few days is Covid and not football-related. The world seems to be in the middle of another Covid crisis, this time because of the highly contagious omicron breed and the upcoming AFCON will most likely be filled with news like this. One of the tournament’s favorites, Senegal is facing their first Covid related problems, which forced them to stay in their base in Dakar, instead of flying to Cameroon for the tournament. Eto’o: “I don’t see why an African country won’t win a World Cup. Why would that be impossible?”So far, nine members of the Senegal delegation have tested positive for Covid 19, out of which three are players. The Lions of Teranga are playing their first game of the tournament on Monday against Zimbabwe and nobody knows when they will actually fly to Cameroon. The three players who have caught Covid are Nampalys Mendy (Leicester), Pape Sarr (on loan at Metz from Tottenham) and Mame Thiam (Kayserispor).(1.32) SENEGAL (5.20) ZIMBABWE (13.0)But that doesn’t end the controversies with the Lions of Teranga. They are joined by Watford’s main man Ismaila Sarr, who is injured but still came to Senegal. His arrival was not welcomed well in London, as the Hornets believe that he is not fit enough to play in the tournament. Watford are also angry because Sarr traveled to Dakar for hours and risked aggravating his knee ligament injury, while Senegal were keen for their own medical staff to assess his condition before ruling him out of AFCON. The team will be based in Bafoussam throughout AFCON, and they were due to head there on a four-hour flight from Dakar on Tuesday after their reception with the country’s president Macky Sall. Senegal, as one of the favorites, has a number of other Premier League stars like Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Edouard Mendy (Chelsea), Cheikhou Kouyate (Crystal Palace) along with Napoli’s captain Kalidou Koulibaly.
