Lazio president Claudio Lotito has compared positive coronavirus tests to 'bacteria in vagina' in one of the weirdest metaphors you'll hear today.
The fury began when Ciro Immobile, Lucas Leiva and Thomas Strakosha tested positive for the virus before two separate Champions League games - but then negative for last weekend's clash with Torino and Sunday's showdown with Juventus.
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Friday saw all three players undergo tests again, with a laboratory in Rome's showing them as positive and a laboratory in Avellino showing them negative.
Lotito vented his fury to La Repubblica and asked per football-italia: "I told you, it's like a magic trick, what even is positive?
"Positive means contagious, right? There are bacteria in the vaginas of all women in the world, that doesn't mean they are pathogens. Only in some cases do they become pathogens and degenerate."
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That is certainly a strange way of putting it.
UEFA and Serie A don't have the same threshold for coronavirus tests, meaning test results can vary.
"Our director Igli Tare is positive too, but nobody can tell us right now if someone is infectious or not," Lotito added.
"There is this difference in the interpretation of results. Our medical staff evaluated Immobile, his lung capacity checks were better than before. We have the swab, he is negative and so is his family, so why can't he play against Juventus on Sunday?
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"I have asked the FIGC to introduce a single structure that can perform all the tests and have the same parameters for everyone. I suggested the Federlab, which already does them for Serie C.
"We need a third party that can end this chaos. We went to Avellino for our tests because the structures in Rome were already crowded and I didn't want players to seemingly get preferential treatment, keeping others in line."
Lazio have drawn their last two Champions League games 1-1, against Club Brugge and Zenit respectively.
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Simone Inzaghi's side are 10th in Serie A after six games, two points behind Sunday's opponents Juventus.
Featured Image Credit: PA ImagesTopics: Football News, Lazio, Football, Serie A, Champions League