Rodri admits Spain squad fear missing Euros due to positive COVID-19

just eight days before Spain's Euro 2020 opener against

Sweden

. The 24-man squad went into self-isolation.

defender

Diego Llorente

initially tested positive but he returned to training on Saturday after three subsequent negatives.

That raised fears among the rest of the players that further positive tests would follow.

Rodri admits that created a tense atmosphere as they waited for the results, knowing their tournament could be ended at any moment.

“For the last few days, every morning when the PCRs [tests] are done, there’s been this idea going round your head: ‘Please, please don’t let there be a positive'. It would be very cruel,”

he told the 

.

“There’s a fear, not so much for our health, as we’re young and it seems unlikely that anything serious could happen to us, but that you could miss the Euros. Busi [Busquets] caught it, he doesn’t feel anything [symptoms] at all but you know that could mean missing out. It happened to Diego, although fortunately it was a false positive and he can come back but that idea leaves you with a really bad feeling, a sadness. The situation is what it is, though; we know it’s the age we’re living in. And luckily it now seems like we’re moving forward.”

Training sessions have been affected and Rodri admits it is frustrating because they cannot have collective preparation.

“These last few days we haven’t been able to work the way that we would like,”

he said

.

“We’ve been doing individual training, more physical. That’s useful in terms of fitness, but we haven’t had the collective preparation you need: sessions where there’s ball work, passes, possession, mini-games, combinations. We haven’t done much with the ball, which is what really makes things function.

“In the residency, the common spaces have been closed. We got rid of any type of contact. Meals have been organized so that everything is done separately, the tables are apart, we eat in shifts. It’s all done individually, everything we do. Everyone’s in their own rooms.

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