FC Rostov, a Russian Premier League club, said on Wednesday that the whole team would self-isolate for two weeks after six of their players were diagnosed with COVID-19.
The league is set to resume matches on Friday after action was halted in mid-March in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. Rostov, currently fourth in the table, had been set to play 12th-placed Sochi that day.
Rostov did not disclose the identity of the infected players and said that 42 people from the club had come in close contact with them.
"Our team had been preparing for the match against Sochi. We were hoping for a successful restart," club president Artashes Arutyunyants said in a statement.
"But life made its own adjustments. We have six sick (players). This is a force majeure."
Russia has the third-highest number of infections in the world with more than half a million cases, something the authorities have attributed to a huge testing programme that has seen more than 15 million tests carried out so far.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Toby Davis)
