KATHMANDU, APRIL 6

Four players and two officials of the Tribhuvan Army Football Club have tested positive for COVID-19, ruling out of the AFC Cup's South Asian qualifying playoff round match.

The departmental team of Nepali Army is slated to host Sri Lanka Police Sports Club in the preliminary round match at the Dasharath Stadium on Wednesday.

The TAFC have not identified the players and officials who contracted the virus but a couple of key members of the squad were not present in the team training on Tuesday evening.

According to an official at the TAFC, the match would be played as per the schedule and that the reports of those players and officials were resent for verification.

'The team management will take the final call about the players and officials only after receiving the reports,' the official said.

Earlier, TAFC coach Nabin Neupane and skipper Bharat Khawas attended the prematch press conference at the ANFA Complex and both of them were confident of winning the match and advancing to the group stage.

'We have prepared well for the match and our initial target is to reach the group stage of AFC Cup,' said coach Neupane.

'The friendly match against Kyrgyzstan Olympic Team was fruitful for us as we were able to work on the weaknesses of the team,' he added.

Skipper Khawas hoped the team would deliver according to the plan. 'We have taken it as an opportunity and we are satisfied with the preparation. We hope we can put in our best in the match tomorrow.' A version of this article appears in the print on April 7, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.