Kingussie Shinty Club addresses 'malicious gossip' of Covid cover-up ahead of final
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Kingussie Camanachd has taken the unusual step of publicly refuting 'malicious gossip' that the club has been covering up a Covid outbreak ahead of tomorrow's Macaulay Cup Final.
It comes after tonight's second team match away to Lovat was postponed because of several positive Covid-19 tests in the Kings' colts squad.
As a precaution and to dispel the false claims, the entire first team squad was tested yesterday by the club.
It follows unfounded allegations in the town and then in the wider shinty community that the Red and Blues were trying to hide the outbreak.
There were even claims that the first team players had been told not to test themselves ahead of the big game – something strenuously denied by the Dell club.
In a bid to clarify the situation, the club issued a public statement last night.
It reads: "The club was informed today that our opponents in Saturday's Artemis Macaulay Cup Final – Kyles Athletic – had been told that Kingussie Camanachd Club was covering up a Covid outbreak and telling players not to test prior to Saturday's match.
"This is totally untrue and is not founded on any evidence whatsoever.
"KCC has taken our Covid prevention policies very seriously from the start and to suggest anything different is totally unacceptable.
"There is a Covid spike in Badenoch at the moment and to mitigate risk the first team squad have trained on their own on Tuesday and Thursday.
"They have therefore been isolated from the Covid cases that have affected the second team squad and caused their match to be called off on Friday evening.
"The first team squad all tested on Thursday and the results are dated and time stamped in a document held by our Covid co ordinator and out of 17 players tested we have evidence of 17 negative tests.
"If any one would like to see this document please just ask.
"Everyone travelling with the squad on Saturday has been asked to produce a negative test prior to travelling.
"We have informed the Camanachd Association, the Macaulay Association and Kyles Athletic of all of these details.
"Our Covid co-ordinator will continue to monitor the situation and as things stand we have a full squad with no symptoms and all testing negative.
"These have been hard times for all shinty clubs and malicious gossip does not help anyone or our sport.
"We look forward to playing Kyles in Saturday’s Artemis Macaulay Cup Final."
The throw-up at Oban's Mossfield Park for the first silverware to be contested of the season is at 4.10pm and is live on BBC Alba.
