Anxious Dutch bosses have confirmed tonight’s Euro 2020 warm up showdown with Scotland will go ahead - but warned they won’t shake hands or swap shirts with Steve Clarke’s players.
The Holland camp is still reeling from its own covid controversy after boss Frank de Boer axed star keeper Jasper Cillessen from his squad from the entire tournament on Tuesday after the Valencia No.1 posted a series of positive tests.
De Boer is terrified that the rest of his stars could become infected on the eve of the competition but has agreed to go ahead with tonight’s friendly in the Algarve despite discovering yesterday that John Fleck has gone down with the virus at Scotland’s training base in Spain.
Six more of Clarke’s players have now been ruled out of the match after being identified by the manager’s own medical team as close contacts of the Sheffield United man.
And although the Dutch camp is believed to be on a high state of alert the KNVB have this afternoon ruled out pulling the plug on the showdown at the eleventh hour.
A spokesman for the KNVB said: “The Scots informed us yesterday in a very timely manner. It doesn’t change anything about our friendly and we have not considered cancelling the game.
“We are following strict covid protocol and so are the Scots but we have instructed our players to stick firmly to the rules.
“We have strongly advised that there should be no contact with the Scottish players, no handshakes, no hugging and no embracing team mates they may know from club football.
“The swapping of shirts is also not allowed and the players know this.”
Record Sport understands John McGinn, David Marshall, Grant Hanley, Nathan Patterson, Che Adams and Stephen O’Donnell have all stayed behind at the base in La Finca – but none of the players have produced positive results in the latest rounds of testing.
Clarke is being ultra cautious after Fleck’s covid case as although the players were not flagged up as part of contract tracing, it was felt they were in the vicinity of the midfielder.
It is understood the six could have travelled to the Algarve but the manager felt it wasn’t a risk worth taking.
