World Cup nation respond after being forced to isolate for 21 days ahead of tournament

World Cup participants DR Congo have been banned from entering the United States for a period of 21 days as they have been instructed to serve a period of isolation.

DR Congo are preparing for their second World Cup appearance and a first since 1974 after qualifying through the inter-confederation play-offs and defeating Jamaica in the final.

But their preparations have been anything but plain-sailing as the country has been plagued by a new outbreak of Ebola in the form of the Bundibugyo strain, with 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths in the DR Congo.

The World Health Organization (WHO) raised the risk level in DR Congo to "very high" on Friday.

The virus has caused the country to cancel planned events in its capital of Kinshasa, where a special send-off with head of state Felix Tshisekedi and an open training session was scheduled.

However, more extreme measures have had to be taken as the entire squad and its staff are now required to isolate for 21 days.

That rule has been brought in by the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), who are not allowing entry of any non-US ⁠passport holders to have been DR Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the last 21 days.

Wan-Bissaka and DR Congo players have been told to isolate. Image: Getty

DR Congo, who have West Ham defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Newcastle striker Yoane Wissa in their ranks, also have planned friendlies with Denmark and Chile coming up in Liege in Belgium and Cadiz, Spain

But they now look set to wait until June 11 before the touchdown in Houston before their first game against Portugal six days later.

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DR Congo are currently training and isolating in Belgium, with Andrew Giuliani, executive director for the White House's World Cup task force, issuing a comment on the situation to ESPN.

He stated: "We’ve been very clear to Congo that they should maintain the integrity of their bubble for 21 days before they can then come to Houston on June 11. We’ve made it very clear to the Congo government as well, that they need to maintain that bubble or they risk not being able to travel to the United States. We cannot be any clearer.

“We want to make sure that there is nothing that’s going to come in or near our borders here on this.”

DR Congo respond to White House demand

DR Congo play Denmark on 3 June in their first friendly, before their final warm-up against Chile on 9 June. After their opener against Portugal on June 17, they take on Colombia and Uzbekistan in Group K.

As reported by Al Jazeera, DR Congo chiefs have no plan to alter their schedule - with a spokesperson for the team saying, “We have kept our training programme. No ⁠player in the squad has come from DR Congo".

DR Congo's squad, which also includes Real Betis striker Cedric Bakambu and ex West Ham defender Arthur Masuaku, is primarily based in Europe - with no players coming from their home country.

Manager Sebastien Desabre, hailing from France, is also based in Europe and it is only a small number of team officials who came to Belgium from DR Congo.