Super Eagles striker, Paul Onuachu, tests positive for coronavirus

Nigeria international, Paul Onuachu, on Wednesday tested positive for coronavirus.

His compatriots, Stephen Odey and Cyril Dessers, at Belgian club Genk, however, tested negative.

“In the run-up to the first exhibition game of the season, the entire Genk group was tested yesterday (Tuesday),” a report on Belgian website hln.be stated.

“Everyone tested negative except Onuachu.”

Onuachu, 26, is the first Eagles star to test positive for the deadly virus, but becomes the second Nigerian footballer to contract the virus after Akpan Udoh, the first footballer to be infected in February.

The 6ft7in striker left Belgium for Nigeria on May 27, alongside fellow Eagles strikers Victor Osimhen and Imoh Ezekiel and returned to his club June 28 after he was stranded for a week in Lagos due to travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Onuachu is expected to miss Genk’s first exhibition game of the season against Eendracht Termien on Thursday as he will be quarantined.

His coronavirus status has raised fears within the Genk squad as he had trained intensively with the rest of the squad for more than a week now.

Onuachu joined Genk from Danish club FC Midtjylland last summer and scored 10 goals for the club before the Belgian Pro Division season was ended abruptly due to COVID-19.