Paulo Dybala ‘tests positive for coronavirus for fourth time in six weeks’ with Juventus close to return to training

The Juventus forward was among the first Serie A players to contract Covid-19 alongside team-mates Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi.

He confirmed to his 37.9million Instagram followers on March 21 that both he and girlfriend Oriana Sabatini had caught the disease.

But Spanish programme El Chiringuito stated Dybala has had four tests across the last six weeks and the latest one was positive again.

It is unclear when each of those tests took place, if Sabatini has also been tested as regularly or if either of them are still displaying symptoms.

They do appear in high spirits though, with Dybala’s Instagram story showing the striker working out in a home gym and then the pair doing a TikTok dance together, days after they welcomed dog Kaia to the family.

The reports come just days after Juventus got in touch with their players who had travelled back to their homelands for the lockdown.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Douglas Costa were among those to be called back to Turin as Juventus look to try and return to training, as teams in Germany and England have done.

But those stars arriving back in Italy will need to go into quarantine for a further two weeks before they can reunite with their team-mates at the training ground.

Serie A sides are allowed to return to individual training on May 4 and team training on May 18.

That is after Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte announced the primary stages of lifting the country’s lockdown.

Italy was the first European epicentre for the virus and have seen 202,000 confirmed cases with 27,359 deaths.

Early in April, Sabatini revealed she had taken a test which came back with a “false negative” but a further test showed she still had Covid-19

She told followers: “I am updating you because many are asking me. On March 21, my boyfriend and I did a test for coronavirus. We tested positive.

“Three days ago they did the test again and it was negative. Yesterday morning I did another test.

“I tested positive. So I still have coronavirus.”

Argentine model and singer Oriana went on to reveal it just proves that not only does she not understand the killer bug, but no one else does either.

She continued: “I don’t really know how it works, I don’t even know why it was negative first and then positive.

“I think I heard that if you contract coronavirus and then do a test it can be a false negative. For this reason take another one to make sure it is 100 per cent negative.

“This proves how little we know about this virus, because we thought we had been infected by the contact of my boyfriend with his team-mate [Rugani] who was positive.

“But it seems strange to me because the 15 days in which we are sick have already passed, so it does not make sense that we continue to have it.”

It is not unique for someone to test positive, then negative and then positive again.

That is what happened to Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Sportiello, who still had coronavirus a month after his initial diagnosis, although has not been showing major symptoms.

The most likely next step for Dybala would be a blood test to see if he has developed antibodies as a result the virus in his system, and if so, how many of them.

Dybala spoke about the struggles of what it is like to have coronavirus and said he felt “dead tired” after five minutes of exercise.

But at the time, in late March, he added that both he and Sabatini were feeling “fine” and the symptoms had then passed.

He told reporters: “I’m fine, much better after some strong symptoms that I had a couple of days ago – now I have no symptoms.

“I can move better by walking and trying to train.

“When I tried a few days ago I lacked air and after five minutes I was dead tired, my body felt heavy and my muscles hurt. Now Oriana and I are fine.”

Source: TheSun