Scottish FA chief insists they don't know how Gilmour contracted Covid

‘Everyone looks at it and thinks, “How can that happen?”‘: Scottish FA chief says they don’t know how Chelsea midfielder Billy Gilmour contracted Covid-19 which caused him, Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell to miss their final group games

  • Chelsea midfielder Billy Gilmour returned a positive Covid-19 test on Sunday   
  • He was forced to miss Scotland’s final group game – a 3-1 loss against Croatia 
  • Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell were close contacts and were forced to isolate
  • Ian Maxwell says that they don’t know how Gilmour contracted the virus 

Scotland insist they followed all Covid-19 protocols and do not know how Billy Gilmour contracted the virus.

The 20-year-old was forced to miss Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat by Croatia — ending Scotland’s participation at Euro 2020 — after returning a positive test on Sunday.

England pair Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell were identified as close contacts of their Chelsea team-mate after a 20-minute conversation in the tunnel at Wembley following Friday’s goalless draw, and they are now in self-isolation.

Billy Gilmour missed Scotland’s last game after he tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday

Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount also had to miss England’s game against the Czech Republic

But Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell says nothing more could have been done to avoid Gilmour’s positive test. ‘You take a step back and, when Billy has his positive result, everyone looks at it and thinks, “How can that happen?”’ he said.

‘But when you look at his movements, just as part of his involvement with the team, he is in a hotel in Darlington on Thursday. He is then on a bus, a plane, another bus, another hotel and into a stadium and on to another bus, another plane and so on. So when people say, “How can that happen?”, that’s the difficulty of coronavirus.

‘It really doesn’t need very much at all and you can contract it purely from touching the wrong thing at the wrong time.

‘We are well versed in the protocols, we know exactly what the risks are and we have kept the players as secure as we can with a virus which is so difficult to manage.’

Scottish FA chief Ian Maxwell says the Scotland team followed all Covid-19 protocols




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