Club Brugge of Belgium attacker, David Chidozie Okereke is eagerly awaiting the result of a second coronavirus test, after he was declared positive for the highly-contagious respiratory ailment on Tuesday, megasportsarena.com reports.
The former Spezia of Italy youngster becomes the third Nigerian player to test positive to the deadly disease, after Paul Ebere Onuachu of fellow-Belgian Jupiler League side, Racing Genk and Girondins-Bordeaux of France winger, Samuel Kalu also both contracted COVID-19 earlier this year.
Okereke will now hope to recover as quickly as Onuachu and Kalu did, with the dreadlocks-wearing striker, who only last weekend scored his first goal for Brugge after several barren months, received the startling confirmation of his health status early on Tuesday, as the Belgian champions disclosed that the player had tested positive for coronavirus.
Brugge further disclosed that the 23-year-old entered quarantine immediately after the test results emerged, which means he will miss the club’s next match away to Zulte-Waregem on Sunday, but he will get a second test next week to determine if he will rejoin the squad or not.
The development came just three days after Okereke ended his goal drought with his first strike of the new season against Waasland-Beveren, against which the all-action attacker, who has so far made four appearances in the Belgian top-flight this term, two of which were in his team’s starting lineup, played 77 minutes before he was replaced in Saturday’s game.
The former under-23 national team invitee, who is in his second season with the club he joined on a four-year contract from Spezia in July 2019, played a significant role in helping Brugge win the Belgian Jupiler League title last season, during which he hit home nine goals in 22 games.
The Lagos-born Okereke, who spent three years at Spezia and the second-half of the 2017/18 campaign on loan at Italian lower division side, Cosenza, got his first invitation to Super Eagles in March 2019 but was an unused substitute in a 1-0 victory over Egypt at Stephen Keshi Stadium.
The Abuja Football College graduate, who turned down offers from a couple of Serie A clubs, after scoring 10 goals and provided 12 assists in 33 appearances for Spezia, also made his debut with the under-23 Nigerian team, Olympic Eagles, against Libya in Asaba in 2019.
Okereke became the most expensive signing ever for the Belgian champions, as he cost eight million Euro when he arrived from Spezia in Italy’s Serie B, but his start to life in Brugge had not been as smooth as expected, with only a handful of appearances and few goals to show last season, only for COVID-19 to set in just few days after he eventually found target for the club.
He will now wait anxiously for next week to come and results of a second test will appear, as he spends the next handful of days in self-isolation, after his club announced through social media: “David Okereke tests positive for COVID-19. The attacker was immediately quarantined and will be retested next week.”
