MLS is Back Tournament set to kick off with Orlando City vs Inter Miami, live on Sky Sports Football from 1am BST on Thursday
Tuesday 7 July 2020 20:26, UK
Major League Soccer has postponed the second match of the MLS is Back tournament after five Nashville players tested positive for the coronavirus.
The match between Nashville and Chicago Fire had been scheduled to follow the tournament opener between Orlando City and Inter Miami on Wednesday (Thursday morning BST).
The league said two Nashville players tested positive last weekend and three more positive tests were confirmed on Monday night, while four more players received inconclusive results and are requiring further testing.
The postponement comes a day after FC Dallas were forced to withdraw from the tournament after 10 of their players tested positive for coronavirus. The league said it would continue to evaluate Nashville's participation in the tournament.
FC Dallas announced last week that six players had tested positive upon arrival in Florida for the tournament, and the entire team was quarantined. As a result, the team's opening match on Thursday against the Vancouver Whitecaps had already been postponed.
Following Dallas' withdrawal, MLS was devising a new schedule for the month-long tournament, to be played without fans at ESPNs Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World.
Two additional schedule changes were announced on Tuesday. The match between Toronto and DC United scheduled for Friday was pushed back to Sunday. That change was made because Toronto did not arrive in Florida until Monday.
With the Toronto-DC United match changed, the league moved the start time of Friday's match between Seattle and San Jose 90 minutes earlier. It is currently the only match scheduled for Friday.
The league said on Monday that of the 557 players sequestered at a pair of Walt Disney World hotels in Orlando, 13 had tested positive: 10 from Dallas, two from Nashville and one from Columbus.
MLS shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic on March 12 after teams had each played two games.
