Coutinho, Dest and Abde test positive for Covid-19 to compound Barcelona's woes

Several La Liga clubs dealing with outbreak as Spain experiences dramatic rise in cases

Ronald Araujo and his Barcelona teammates after his goal in the 1-1 draw against Sevilla at the Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium. AFP

Sevilla midfielder 'Papu' Gomez celebrates with teammate Ivan Rakitic after scoring the opening goal. EPA

Gomez celebrates with teammates. EPA

Barcelona's Ronald Araujo celebrates after levelling the scores. Getty

Barcelona coach Xavi celebrates their goal. AFP

Sevilla's Jules Kounde is shown a red card by referee Carlos Del Cerro. Reuters

Sevilla's Jules Kounde reacts after being shown a red card. Reuters

Xavi helps Sevilla's Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic, his former teammate, to stand up. AFP

Barcelona have had their resource pool depleted dramatically as midfielder Philippe Coutinho, defender Sergino Dest and winger Ez Abde tested positive for Covid-19.

The Catalan club has been hit hard by a number of coronavirus cases, with Ousmane Dembele, Samuel Umtiti and Gavi set to miss Sunday's La Liga match against Real Mallorca after also testing positive.

Earlier this week, Clement Lenglet, Dani Alves, Jordi Alba and Alejandro Balde had returned positive tests.

"Footballers Sergino Dest, Coutinho and Ez Abde have tested positive for Covid-19. The players are in good health and self-isolating at home. The club has reported the cases to the relevant authorities," Barcelona said.

Barca are not the only club affected by the new wave of the virus.

Real Madrid are also dealing with an outbreak, with Thibaut Courtois, Federico Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga, Vinicius Jr testing positive. Luka Modric, Rodrygo, Marco Asensio, Gareth Bale, Marcelo, Andriy Lunin, Isco and David Alaba had contracted he virus earlier this month.

Several other Spanish clubs, including Cadiz, Real Sociedad and Mallorca, have reported cases but no match has been postponed yet.

Under Liga protocols, a club must have 13 players - at least five first-team members and one a goalkeeper - available to play a match. Vaccinated players can return as soon as they test negative.

This raised questions about Sunday's match between Atletico Madrid and Rayo Vallecano because the latter have up to 17 infected players, according to press reports, making it the hardest-hit squad in the first division.

Spain's 14-day infection rate hit a new record of 1,360 cases per 100,000 people on Tuesday, rising from 1,206 cases the previous day and marking a five-fold increase since the start of December.