Washington Football Team player tests positive for COVID-19

A Washington Football Team player has tested positive for COVID-19, per reports brought to light on Tuesday morning.

The 2020 NFL season has been a campaign wrought with institutional changes brought on by the onset of the COVID-19 virus. At one point, the virus made the commencement of the season itself uncertain, but all NFL teams, including the Washington Football Team, have been able to push through with rigorous guidelines and protocol changes spearheaded by league doctors.

For the entirety of the season, the Washington Football Team has not been impacted by the virus in a direct sense. That distinction has been for other teams, such as the Tennessee Titans, who had to reschedule a game due to a locker room outbreak, and the New England Patriots, who lost their starting quarterback for a short spell due to a positive test.

Now, however, the Washington Football Team has officially joined the list of those impacted. Washington released an official statement this morning that a player on their squad had tested positive for the virus, and that necessary protocols were being enacted in response to the discovery. The statement can be read in its entirety below.

At this point, the player’s name has not been made available, nor have the names of the player’s close contacts. We do know, however, that the player who contracted the virus is currently on injured reserve. That limits the player possibilities to Greg Stroman, Antonio Gandy-Golden, Kyle Allen, Saahdiq Charles, Landon Collins, Reuben Foster, Michael Liedtke, Matt Ioannidis, Bryce Love, and Thaddeus Moss.

Additionally, as The Athletic’s Ben Standig reported shortly after the release of the statement, the player in question did not travel with the team to Detroit this past weekend.

Given the circumstances listed above, there is hope that the unknown player’s close contacts will be minimal, or at least reserved to other players currently on injured reserve, recovering from various injuries. With that being said, the COVID-19 virus is very unpredictable and hard to track. The Washington Football Team has entered the NFL’s protocols to mitigate that risk, and until further notice, all team meetings for this week will be virtual.

Update: The player who tested positive is Matt Ioannidis, per J.P. Finlay of NBC Sports. Ioannidis has been on injured reserve since Week 3.

For now, it is unknown who the positive-testing player is, but once more information is made available on both testing results and close contacts, we will supplement this post with the updates.