Cristiano Ronaldo , one of soccer’s biggest stars and among the world’s most famous athletes, has tested positive for the coronavirus , Portugal’s soccer federation announced Tuesday. The federation’s statement said Ronaldo was not displaying symptoms of Covid-19, and that he had entered isolation, away from the rest of Portugal’s players. Those players continued their preparations for a match against Sweden on Wednesday in Lisbon. “Following the positive case, the remaining players underwent new tests Tuesday morning,” Portugal’s federation said in a statement. “All tested negative.” Ronaldo, 35, will miss Wednesday’s Nations Cup game against Sweden, the federation said. Ronaldo played for Portugal in a friendly against Spain last week and in a scoreless Nations League draw against France on Sunday. On Monday, he posted a photo of himself dining with his smiling teammates on his social media accounts. “United on and off the field,” the caption read. … [Read more...]

A player for Juventus, the Italian soccer champion, has tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus , the club announced Wednesday, a worrisome development for a sport — and a country — struggling to contain the outbreak. The player, the 25-year-old defender Daniele Rugani , is believed to be the first athlete in Italy’s top division to test positive. The team said in a statement that Rugani was “currently asymptomatic,” but that the club was following isolation procedures required by law for him and anyone who has had contact with him. Urgent communication. Player tested positive for COVID-19. https://t.co/JdwTzLOjR6 pic.twitter.com/L8pU59zkYf — JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) March 11, 2020 Rugani is not the first player in Europe to test positive for the disease — a German team, Hannover 96, confirmed earlier on Wednesday that one of its players had tested positive and was in isolation — but the implications for Juventus, and for … [Read more...]

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A 10-year-old girl and two women in their 20s with underlying health conditions are three of 17 people who died since Sept. 24, 2021 in Dallas County from COVID-19. The child was from Mesquite, as was one of the 20-year olds and the other woman was from Dallas. A total of 4,604 Dallas County residents have lost their lives due to the coronavirus, according to health officials. READ MORE: Texas Secretary Of State's Office So Far Not Releasing Details Behind 2020 Election Forensic Audit Plan Here are the other 14 people who died as listed in the most recent report: – A woman in her 30’s who was a resident of the City of Grand Prairie. She was found deceased at home and had underlying high risk health conditions. – A woman in her 40’s who was a resident of the City of Cedar Hill. She had been critically ill in an area hospital and had underlying high risk health conditions. – A man in his 40’s who was a resident of the City of Irving. He had been … [Read more...]

The most accomplished sumo wrestler in history is calling it a career at age 36. Hakuho, a native of Mongolia who came to Japan to pursue sumo at age 15, retires with more top-level championships, or yusho, than anyone in the sport’s history. He won his first title at the elite makuuchi level in 2006. A year later he earned the revered title of yokozuna, reserved for the greatest champions. Hakuho went on to win at least one of the six annual top tournaments every year since, and usually did better than that: In 2010 and 2014, he won five of six. In 2015, he broke the record of 32 top-level wins set by Taiho in 1971. (Sumo’s history goes back 1,000 years, but the sport’s tournament system began in 1909.) In recent years, though, Hakuho has struggled with a knee injury, and he tested positive for coronavirus in January, causing him to miss tournaments. He was warned by the sumo authorities that missing so many events might lead to forced retirement. But he rolled back … [Read more...]

Cristiano Ronaldo was probably the most famous athlete to test positive for coronavirus . But a case could be made that the most dominant athlete to contract it is Hakuho, who learned Tuesday that he had tested positive. Hakuho, Japan’s top-ranked sumo wrestler, is perhaps the best ever to compete in the ancient Japanese sport. At 35, he has won the six-times-yearly top-level championship a record 44 times, dwarfing the previous mark of 32 set by an earlier-era champion, Taiho, in the 1960s and ’70s. In a statement released by Japan’s sumo association , Hakuho said he took a coronavirus test on Sunday after noticing that he had lost his sense of smell. He had been expected to make a comeback in the first tournament of the year, scheduled to start on Sunday, after having missed the previous two because of a knee injury. Now he will miss it — if the event takes place at all. Concerned by rising case numbers, Japan’s government said Monday that it was considering declaring … [Read more...]

Up until now, soccer’s conflicting interests have largely converged, displaying a collective spirit to overcome the debilitating effects of a global pandemic. But the mood is threatening to turn sour, with clubs and leagues holding urgent meetings to devise a common position before a showdown with FIFA, the game’s global governing body, over the release of players for national team games in October. With many countries enduring a second wave of infections, concerns over releasing players for cross-continental travel has become heightened, with some clubs now considering the possibility of refusing to release their athletes during a window set aside for national team games, including some qualification games for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Failure to release players would set the scene for a major showdown between soccer’s global and regional governing bodies and the teams that pay the players’ salaries. Such a confrontation could raise the stakes of what has already been a … [Read more...]