Two Atletico Madrid players linked with summer moves to Everton and Tottenham Hotspur have tested positive for Covid-19, the Spanish club confirmed on Thursday.
As such Santiago Arias, who The Daily Mail reported Everton were in advanced talks to sign last month, and Diego Costa, who The Daily Star claimed was offered to Tottenham last week, will not resume training with the rest of their Atletico teammates on Friday.
Instead, the South America-born pair, who have shown no symptoms of the virus, must isolate at home, ‘complying with all protocols and measures set by the authorities and La Liga’.
That almost certainly rules out moves for either Arias or Costa in the coming few weeks, with Tottenham due to host Everton on the Premier League’s opening weekend in nine days’ time.
And, assuming their interest is indeed genuine, Everton and Tottenham must now weigh up whether to wait until the players’ quarantine period is over or pursue alternative targets.
Arias, a right-back, was expected to cost around £13 million, according to The Daily Mail.
However, it is unclear how much Tottenham would have pay for Costa, the striker who starred under the Spurs manager Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.
Tottenham need to sell before they can buy again this summer, having already spent eight-figure sums on the former Everton target, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and Matt Docherty, according to The Evening Standard.
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