Essendon are likely to be expected to field a team in their upcoming fixtures, even if several first-choice players are forced to isolate for two weeks after Conor McKenna's positive COVID-19 test.
While their Round 3 clash against Melbourne was postponed, Essendon's scheduled clash for Round 4 against Carlton next Saturday could still go ahead.
The AFL and the Department of Health and Human Services' definition of "close contact" looms as the major call on which Essendon's immediate future hinges on after Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton's address on Sunday.
"The AFL already has an existing protocol that minimises the number of close contacts any players will have and they will implement that accordingly," Sutton said regarding the McKenna situation.
"DHHS advice will be to quarantine all of those identified close contacts for two weeks from the time of exposure."
If Essendon's full club training session falls under the "close contact" definition, it could mean the entire first-choice team is forced into a 14-day quarantine period.
McKenna returned five negative tests, including one as recent as Wednesday, before a test on Friday afternoon following club training revealed an low-level irregularity.
The 24-year-old eventually returned a positive test for COVID-19 on Saturday, and is known to have trained in a group with seven teammates in a gym session from the time where his status went from irregular to positive.
Another deciding factor on how widespread the impact of McKenna's test will be on Essendon will be determined by how closely the club followed the AFL's training protocols.
The AFL had called on clubs to use small training groups to act as a contingency, in the event a single player tested positive to COVID-19.
The league strongly advised clubs not to divide the smaller groups into forwards, defenders and midfielders, so that an entire area of a team structure would not be compromised in the event of an enforced quarantine period.
Following McKenna's positive test, the AFL will investigate if the defender breached the league's strict COVID-19 protocols.
So far, three players, including one of McKenna's teammates Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, have been suspended for breaches of the protocols.
The AFL is expected to announce a decision Essendon's Round 4 clash against Carlton in the coming days, following an assessment from the DHHS and contact tracing to take place.
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/essendon-expected-to-field-full-team-despite-conor-mckenna-positive-coronavirus-covid-19-test/badccdbd-b734-4a33-bb7d-d22c1755156b
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