Republic of Ireland: FAI to investigate second false positive Covid-19 test

Republic of Ireland boss Stephen Kenny shows his frustration during Sunday's 0-0 Nations League draw with Wales — Stephen Kenny has lost seven players from his squad over the past week for Covid-19 reasons although Aaron Connolly and Adam Idah have since returned to the squad

The FAI is investigating after a second member of the Republic of Ireland set-up returned a negative Covid-19 result after initially testing positive.

A player, who cannot be named, tested positive then negative on Monday to follow the same scenario for a member of the backroom staff last week.

The player will be retested before the team's flight on Tuesday for the Nations Cup game with Finland.

Another player missed Sunday's draw with Wales after a positive test.

Four other squad members, who were close contacts, also missed the game and that followed Aaron Connolly and Adam Idah sitting out Thursday's Euro 2020 play-off as being close contacts of the member of the backroom staff, who it was later discovered had a false positive test.

FAI interim chief executive Gary Owens said on Monday: "This negative result following a positive has been reported to Uefa and the HSE and we are in communication with both Uefa and the HSE (Health Service Executive) regarding the player's availability for the Finland game."