Head coach Dean Holden has provided an update on the covid outbreak situation at Bristol City at the club's pre-Derby County press conference on Friday afternoon.
The Robins face the Rams at 3pm on Saturday and their preparations for the game have been hindered by 'up to 10' people testing positive for covid across the international break, with the Failland training ground closed as a result.
The weekend's fixture is not in doubt but the squad is just 'coming out of it', which included the head coach testing positive himself.
Bristol Live understands that after the latest round of covid testing the Robins have been given two positive tests, but one is a player and one is a staff member.
"Yes, you’re right [it’s been challenging] - very quickly through the weekend after the Severnside Derby we realised that covid had got into the camp and we had a number of positives," explained Holden, who has been isolating at home in Bristol for the last ten days.
"It’s never ideal preparation to have the training ground closed 36 hours before the game.
"We’ve spoken to the players as much as we could and let the players and staff ask questions. We have to deal with it.
"We've had a number of positives - and we've still got one player not recovered in time. And also a fresh positive this week. We’re still awaiting some results back from the international players tonight.
"We’ve not seen Adam Nagy and Tomas Kalas at all - fingers crossed that they can rejoin the squad," he said, adding that the club had used Zoom training sessions before finally being able to re-use Failand on Thursday for a group session, before a light session on Friday morning.
As for Holden himself, he is feeling fine after being holed up in his living quarters in Portishead that meant he was left working from home for 10 days.
The head coach finally met new signing Adrian Mariappa this week after the ex-Jamaica international joined up with City last week.
"I was unfortunately one of the guys that was positive," he told Bristol Live.
"I had no symptoms at all fortunately - so I’ve been able to get on with my work in the background and make sure that everybody else has been okay," he added.
Bristol City face Derby County at 3pm on Saturday as the first of nine games across 29 days before a first midweek with no fixture before Christmas.
