Covid penetrates Valdebebas

The positives in Castilla, up to four at the moment, although the staff has performed PCR tests again, have set off alarms in Valdebebas. Covid-19 has found a way to penetrate Valdebebas despite the club's fierce efforts to 'bunkerize' the sports city white. The subsidiary shares the premises, but the club has tried since the beginning of the pandemic that the routine of both teams, that of Zidane and Raúl, is tight. Despite this, there are castillistas (Blanco, Gutiérrez, Sergio Santos …) who regularly go up to train with the first team and two (Marvin and Arribas) debuted with Madrid on the first day League. Santos, without going any further, was summoned to Mönchengladbach due to the injuries of Carvajal, Odriozola and Nacho, and this same Friday he was in the Zidane session …

Very tangential contacts, but that link the activity of Madrid and Castilla, which sees how his game this Sunday against Rayo Majadahonda has been officially postponed. In Valdebebas the day-to-day of the first squad has been measured to the millimeter since they returned in March after confinement. Especially in the common areas.

In the team dining room they have to eat with double distance; they can't serve themselves food, as they did until last March: they are served so that no one comes near the food. The changing room has been closed tightly since then. “It is not the life of a football team, it is the life of a NASA expedition to Mars”, has been heard in the white facilities.

A protocol to minimize risks

The white club protocol is very strict. From the rooms to how they move through Valdebebas. After leaving the car in the parking lot, the players went to the individual rooms that each one has in the residence. Always, scrupulously keeping the safety distance. There they have prepared the training clothes packed in biodegradable bags. All that way is done with gloves and masks. Everyone has a private compartment on the training ground with his boots and sterilized training equipment. Masks and gloves are left in these compartments.

Players also have a very limited service of physios and doctors. Always, using it with a minimum separation of six meters. In the gym the same separation and using hydroalcoholic gel before and after the use of each machine. To return home, each one takes a shower in their room and leaves their clothes in a biodegradable bag and goes home.

For now, Madrid is cautious and prefers to focus its efforts on determining the scope of the coronavirus in the subsidiary, especially the definitive number of infected. This morning, the staff returned to the hospital to undergo tests. The entity will monitor positive cases, carry out confinements and monitor the close contacts they have had. The Valdebebas bubble has suffered a blow with the multiple positives of Castilla, but Madrid considers that it has been complying with a very strict health security regime (only Mariano and Lunin, the latter during his stay with Ukraine, have tested positive in the first team) that has allowed until today to avoid massive contagions in the first team and the staff around it.