World Cup team reacts after having to quarantine for 21 days before the tournament.
The DR Congo World Cup team has been told they can’t enter the United States for 21 days because they need to stay in isolation first. They’re getting ready for their second World Cup appearance, and their first since 1974, after qualifying by beating Jamaica in the play-offs.
But things haven’t been easy for them. DR Congo is dealing with a new Ebola outbreak, called the Bundibugyo strain, with around 750 suspected cases and 177 deaths. Because of this, the World Health Organization declared the risk level in the country “very high” last Friday.
This situation led to the cancellation of some events in Kinshasa, including a special send-off with President Felix Tshisekedi and an open training session. Now, the whole team and staff have to isolate for 21 days. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are not allowing anyone who has been in DR Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan in the past 21 days to enter the US.
The squad, which includes West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Newcastle’s Yoane Wissa, has friendlies scheduled against Denmark and Chile in Belgium and Spain. But they’ll likely have to wait until June 11 to arrive in Houston, ahead of their first World Cup game versus Portugal on June 17.
Right now, the team is training and isolating in Belgium. Andrew Giuliani, executive director for the White House’s World Cup task force, told ESPN they’ve made it very clear to DR Congo to keep their “bubble” safe so they can travel to the US. He stressed, “We want to make sure nothing risky comes near our borders.”
DR Congo’s first warm-up game is on June 3 against Denmark, then Chile on June 9. After their opener against Portugal, they’ll face Colombia and Uzbekistan in Group K.
According to Al Jazeera, the DR Congo team doesn’t plan to change their schedule. A team spokesperson said, “We have kept our training programme. No player has come from DR Congo.” Most of their squad, including stars like Real Betis’ Cedric Bakambu and former West Ham defender Arthur Masuaku, are based in Europe. The coach, Sebastien Desabre from France, also lives in Europe, and only a few officials came to Belgium from DR Congo.