'This could have happened to anyone': Canberra Capitals cancel WNBL game, hit by COVID-19

Canberra's long-awaited homecoming was derailed by a positive COVID-19 case within Capitals camp, forcing the WNBL to cancel Sunday's clash with the Sydney Flames.

The person attended a full team training session on Tuesday morning and soon tested positive to the virus. All players and coaches in attendance were deemed close contacts before undergoing testing and a seven-day isolation period under ACT government health rules.

WNBL officials remain hopeful of rescheduling the game to a later date this season, with the Capitals now resorting to training sessions via video calls in isolation ahead of a scheduled game against Adelaide at the National Convention Centre on December 19.

Capitals coach Paul Goriss says the club has tapped into Basketball Australia's athlete wellbeing services and the club's sports psychologist to ensure the person at the centre of the issue feels supported.

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"We made that clear right from the very start. This could have happened to anyone within our group," Goriss said.

"You look at the hub season last year, it happened to Adelaide up the hub in Townsville and they were forced to isolate for a period of time. We always knew this could happen within the season with COVID still around and it's happened to us.

"We spoke about this as staff and as a group. The protocols the WNBL and ACT Health have put around us have been great.

"This is the world we live in and we're just making sure we support the person as much as we can. It's no one's fault this has happened. It is disappointing that we've had to reschedule a game but we'll be back on court very soon."

It comes after a player in the ACT Meteors pathway tested positive to COVID-19, forcing Cricket Australia to revamp its WNCL fixture, with Meteors players isolating after returning negative tests.

The Capitals will not push the panic button given there have been scores of examples of athletes contracting COVID-19 while competitions continued overseas.

"All players and staff who were around in the past few days were tested [on Thursday]. All of those subsequent results have come back negative," Goriss said.

"Everyone has come back, bar the one person, with negative results. Day zero was from Tuesday when the person first got tested. We re-test on day six, and if we get all negative results, we are then out on day seven which I think would be Tuesday midnight.

"We could resume normal activity on Wednesday. At this stage we see no reason why the following Sunday game wouldn't go ahead, so we'd still be playing that game as per the WNBL schedule."

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