Defending national champion LSU is the latest college football powerhouse to have players test positive for COVID-19, Sports Illustrated reported Saturday.
At least one-quarter of LSU’s football team was in quarantine this week because of virus-related concerns, multiple sources tell Sports Illustrated, but that number is continuously fluctuating based on test results. At least 30 of LSU’s 115 players have been isolated because they tested positive for COVID-19 or were found to have had contact with those who tested positive.
According to another report — in The Advocate — this began with a group of five to six players, a source said, and it originated from a gathering of friends in Baton Rouge. Some of LSU’s football players are quarantined after frequenting a string of nightclubs near the school’s campus called Tigerland, a report suggested.
The cases are the first since the football program began voluntary workouts on June 9.
Shelly Mullenix, the school’s long-time senior associate athletic trainer, declined to confirm the numbers of those who have or had been quarantined but said LSU’s situation was on par with a nationwide uptick in the virus related to the Memorial Day holiday and the widespread mass gatherings from protests. “It’s not surprising we’re seeing the rise right now,” she told SI. “It’s a pandemic. We should not be shocked. The story is that it’s exactly what we said it would be. We were prepared from the get-go for a lot of virus. The good news is we’re seeing subtle virus illness.”
