Professor Jason Leitch says footballers won't get any special treatment amid the situation facing Ryan Christie of Celtic and Arsenal's Kieran Tierney.
Both players were ordered to self-isolate for 14-days after being identified as close contacts of Stuart Armstrong, who tested positive for coronavirus while on Scotland duty.
The measure means that Christie will be ruled out of the Old Firm derby at Parkhead on 17 October.
Celtic said they plan talks with the Scottish Government to "fully understand the self-isolation procedures for players who continue to deliver negative test results, as Ryan as".
However Professor Leitch says that he cannot intervene in the process, and that footballers will be treated the same as any other members of the public.
He told Clyde 1: "The local health protection team in Lothian treats footballers the same way it treats workers in a call centre, or you in your media job or me.
"We phone up the positive case. We ask the positive case their history, where they've been for two days prior to their symptoms beginning. That's sometimes very straight-forward. Sometimes particularly in football it's slightly more complex, and then they make a judgement about who they have been in close contact with."
He added: "The health protection team in Lothian have decided who the contacts are, and those contacts have been asked to self-isolate.
"I cannot intervene or second guess what that process is. It's exactly how the process should work, and footballers are not treated differently in that bit of the process than any other members of our society."
