A Los Angeles Chargers starting offensive lineman tested positive for COVID-19 and began quarantining, the team announced Thursday.
The team placed Ryan Groy, 30, on the Reserve/COVID-19 list Thursday afternoon.
“The player is doing fine the last time I talked with him,” coach Anthony Lynn told reporters in a virtual media availability. The call, conducted early this afternoon, occurred before Groy’s name came out.
According to the team, officials received news of the positive test late Wednesday night. They immediately notified the player and initiated “the contact tracing process.”
“As of right now, we feel like we have it contained,” Lynn said. The coach disclosed this summer that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and recovered.
The team Thursday evening will receive results of coronavirus tests conducted in the morning, Lynn said.
He held a virtual meeting with players and said he decided to cancel practice. He sent the players at the Chargers’ Costa Mesa training facility, the Hoag Performance Center, home “to protect the team.”
“I don’t want to take any chances,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else getting infected potentially.”
Lynn said he also wanted to give players “some peace of mind.” There have been no discussions that he knows, he said, about rescheduling Sunday’s game at Denver. Both teams have 2-4 records.
The 6-foot, 5-inch, 320-pound Groy has been the Chargers’ starting right guard the past three games. He replaced Trai Turner, who has been sidelined by a groin injury.
Groy was among 26 players released Sept. 5 as the Chargers reduced their roster to the 53-player regular-season limit.
The Chargers added him to the team’s active roster for the Sept. 13 season opener but he did not play in the 16-13 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Groy moved back to the practice squad, but re-signed to the active roster Sept. 26. He made his 2020 debut the following day as a reserve in the 21- 16 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
He became a starter the next game.
Groy, in his seventh season in the NFL, began his career in 2014 with the Chicago Bears. He played with the Buffalo Bills from 2015-18.
Groy signed with the Chargers Oct. 9, 2019, playing nine games as a reserve.
The Broncos’ offensive line coach Mike Munchak also is in the NFL’s COVID-19 protocol system and missed Wednesday’s practice, coach Vic Fangio confirmed.
The announcement of the positive test was the third among players on Los Angeles professional teams in three days.
The Los Angeles Dodgers removed third baseman Justin Turner from Game 6 of the World Series Tuesday following a positive coronavirus test.
The Los Angeles Football Club of Major League Soccer announced Wednesday that one of its players had tested positive, forcing him to miss that night’s 2-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo.
The club did not identify the player.
– City News Service