Jefferson Farfan is first footballer in Russia to test positive

Jefferson Farfan

Veteran Peruvian striker Jefferson Farfan has become the first player in Russia to test positive for COVID-19, his Lokomotiv Moscow club said on Saturday, just five weeks before the Premier League season restarts.

"The Coronavirus has been diagnosed in our player Jefferson Farfan. Our best wishes for your health, Jeff. Recover quickly," Lokomotiv tweeted. Anatoli Mechtcheriakov, chairman of the club's board of directors, told Ria-Novosti news agency: "He is in Moscow and has not been hospitalised."

Farfan, 35, who signed for Lokomotiv in 2017, has not played at all this season for the club after suffering a knee injury in last year's Copa America.

The Russian Premier League, suspended since March 17, will resume on June 21 behind closed doors. Russia is in second to the United States with 272,043 cases of COVID-19. The total number of officially confirmed deaths is 2,537.

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