Dundalk players will be fined and make a donation to charity after they broke Covid-19 restrictions to make a weekend trip to Belfast.

The club breathed a sigh of relief when a round of Covid tests ordered in response to the 'team bonding' exercise all returned negative.

That would have opened up the prospect of the entire squad being stood down, but the clean bill of health means they will escape with a rap on the knuckles.

Dundalk are already under pressure following a dreadful start to the season and need to deliver a result against Finn Harps tomorrow.

Sporting director turned interim manager Jim Magilton read out a prepared apology on behalf of the entire club today and then confirmed the players have been punished - although he declined to disclose how many squad members had travelled and if an enquiry had identified ringleaders.

"On behalf of the the management, staff and of course the players, I want to apologise to the Dundalk FC fans, the FAI, the HSE and all frontline workers, the League of Ireland family and people everywhere for the actions of some of the Dundalk FC players who broke government protocol last weekend when they travelled to Belfast," said Magilton, reading out the statement.

"Gratefully we have announced that all Covid-19 tests have returned negative. The HSE has confirmed that the club has satisfied all of the necessary protocols to resume training and playing games.

"The following actions have already been put into action. The players who participated will bear the cost of testing the club's personnel, the players will be making a donation to a local charitable cause, the Save Our Sonia campaign (in aid of local woman, ex-Dundalk player Sonia Hoey, who is battling cancer), in due course.

"At best this was a misguided attempt at a team bonding exercise which was not sanctioned by the club and the players involved wish to apologise for letting Dundalk FC, the fans and themselves down."

Magilton subsequently said that waiting for the test results was one of the longest days of his life, explaining how training was shut down on Monday as a safety measure once details of the gathering entered the public domain.

"The immediacy was around making sure we had that contained and making sure we had the testing place and making sure we had the results," said Magilton, explaining why Dundalk did not release a statement straight away.

"It was 48 hours of that and then we released the statement, so we tried to take care of business our way."

Magilton said he understood why the squad might have tried to organise a social event as a way of letting off steam and kickstarting the season with a much changed squad - many of whom are new to the country - struggling to find any harmony on pitch.

"I've been involved in it (as a player) and it does help especially when you are going through a dodgy period because, again, with our bunch, a lot of foreign lads are in the team and they haven't had that opportunity to get together," said Magilton.

"I'm not condoning it for one second, absolutely not and at times it does help but this didn't and only time will tell if they did bond. We'll soon find out on Friday night because they're going to have to bond on Friday night. We'll get little sympathy out of Finn Harps and quite rightly so and we'll have to stand up to it and show our character."