Coronavirus forces Ajax to cancel practice match in Austria

Ajax will not play its scheduled friendly match against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon in Austria. The Amsterdam team and the German club decided to cancel the exhibition game due to several coronavirus cases diagnosed among the Ajax selection. Kick-off was to take place at 3 p.m.

The positive coronavirus tests became known on Friday evening. "After contacting the opponent about this, it was jointly decided not to take any risks and to cancel the match for that reason," Ajax reported on its website. It is unclear which players have coronavirus.

The Ajax players and staff will fly back to the Netherlands on Saturday without those Ajax players who tested positive. They will remain in Austria for the time being. At the beginning of this year, Ajax created a stir because of quarantine violations Portugal during training camp. At that time, when the club was dealing with coronavirus infections, Ajax flew their infected players back to the Netherlands.

Ajax spent the past few days in Bramberg am Wildkogel. On Tuesday, the Dutch national champion played a friendly match against RB Salzburg, which Ajax won 3-2.

Ajax is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday in a match against Ukrainian top club Shakhtar Donetsk in the Johan Cruijff Arena. In a week, Ajax will battle against PSV for bragging rights in the Johan Cruijff Shield match.

The professional Dutch football season officially starts in two weeks. Fortuna Sittard will be the first Ajax opponent in the Eredivisie.