SOCCER
A member of the Republic of Ireland backroom team has tested positive for COVID-19.
It’s believed the individual in question is not part of the coaching team.
Two other backroom team members have been deemed close contacts and are restricting their movements.
None of the playing or coaching staff have tested positive ahead of Thursday’s Euro 2020 playoff away to Slovakia.
Meanwhile, Slovakia are still waiting on one of their key players to join up with the squad.
Stanislav Lobotka has been quarantined with the rest of his Napoli teammates following a number of positive COVID-19 cases at the club.
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Two Galway United players have tested positive for coronavirus.
The rest of the squad and staff are now restricting their movements as they await testing.
Friday’s SSE Airtricity First Division game with Drogheda United has been postponed as a result.
GAELIC GAMES
It’s believed that Podge Collins will not be part of the Clare hurling panel for the 2020 Championship.
The Banner are due to face Limerick in a Munster quarter-final on October 25th that also doubles as the Hurling League final.
Colm Galvin was a confirmed absentee from Brian Lohan’s panel for the autumn already, while John Conlon’s unlikely to be risked.
RUGBY
Munster training has been suspended after a player tested positive for COVID-19.
The player was not part of the squad that travelled to the Scarlets last weekend and is asymptomatic.
Along with six other players deemed close contacts, they are all isolating.
The individual will be retested tomorrow to remove doubt of a ‘false positive’.
TENNIS
Men’s third seed Dominic Thiem has claimed the second set of his French Open quarter final to Diego Schwartzman.
Thiem had lost the first on a tie-break.
Later, Rafa Nadal faces the 19-year old Italian, Jannick Sinner.
There will be an unseeded player in this weekend’s women’s final.
Argentina qualifier Nadia Podoroska shocked third seed Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-4 in their quarter-final.
Svitolina had been the last remaining seed on that side of the draw.
GOLF
This year’s Bridgestone Order of Merit will be decided on Sunday when the AIG Men’s Irish Amateur Close Championship (October 9-11) brings the curtain down on a curtailed 2020 amateur season.
Six players enter Friday’s opening round at Sandy Hills in Rosapenna with a shot at Bridgestone glory, headed by long-time race leader, Alan Fahy who is in pole position after a string of stellar performances this term.
The Dun Laoghaire star holds a significant 60 point advantage over Galway’s Liam Nolan in second place but with 130 points awarded to this week’s champion, much can change before the AIG Irish Close Champion is decided and the Bridgestone Order of Merit is claimed come Sunday afternoon.
Kilkenny’s Mark Power trails by 62 points in third but the Wake Forest talent is an absentee for the Close this year.
Carton House pair Marc Boucher and Keith Egan will hope to get their hands on a national title from fourth and tied-fifth on the Bridgestone rankings respectively.
Thurles’ Aaron Ryan will look to go one place better than the tied-second result he enjoyed at the Munster Stroke Play while Newlands’ Jake Whelan, who showed winning form of his own when skating to a resounding five-shot success at the Dundalk Scratch Cup last month, as the last man in the running to claim this year’s Bridgestone Order of Merit crown.
Incentive is everywhere at the final stop on this year’s calendar with the top three players on the Order of Merit standings after Sunday’s final round automatically included in the first Golf Ireland High Performance Panel for 2021.
There’s no shortage of inspiration for the entire field either with the roll call of past champions at the Close a who’s who of Irish golf; names like McDowell, McIlroy and Lowry, all going on to enjoy Major glory on the sport’s grandest stage.
The Sandy Hills layout will provide a stern test befitting one of Ireland’s most prestigious championships.
Measuring a hefty 7,255 yards from the tips, the celebrated modern links is sure to produce a winner worthy of etching their name alongside some of Ireland’s golfing greats.
The only unfortunate thing is that due to continuing Covid-19 restrictions, no spectators will be permitted to watch the drama unfold.
