Billy Gilmour doesn’t get a lot of playing time at Chelsea FC, where the midfield is deep, talented and crowded with top notch footballers. With Scotland though, he is an emerging potential star-in-the-making. Gilmour was man of the match in his first start for the national side, which came in their goalless draw with England on Friday night.
Unfortunately, Gilmour won’t be able to build any momentum off that stellar performance right now, as he’s tested positive for COVID-19. He’ll now have to isolate for 10 days. Fortunately, there were no close contacts found and he is the only member of the team right now that will have to quarantine.
Here is the full statment from the Scottish Football Association:
“The Scottish FA can confirm that a member of the Scotland National Team playing squad, Billy Gilmour, has tested positive for COVID-19.
“Having liaised with Public Health England since the positive test was recorded, Billy will now self-isolate for 10 days and therefore miss tomorrow’s UEFA EURO 2020 Group D match against Croatia at Hampden.”
Gilmour, 20, will likely be replaced in the starting lineup by Stuart Armstrong, or Manchester United man Scott McTominay could move forward from the back line back into the midfield.
Tomorrow’s Scotland-Croatia match is absolutely massive, with a knockout round qualification slot on the line. If the Scots don’t produce a result, it probably means the midfielder’s Euro campaign is now over.
He could potentially return for a quarterfinal match appearance, but featuring in a last 16 tie seems out of the question now due to the self-isolation timeline.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.