Just as quickly as it started, the Champions League group stages are reaching their conclusion. After squeaking out win in round 5 against Borrusia Monchengladbach (albeit with some fortunate refereeing decisions), Inter Milan have given themselves a chance to advance to the Round of 16. Unfortunately though their fate is not in their own hands as they need Real Madrid to secure victory against Monchengladbach.

Inter being in this position is partially their fault. The reality is that the squad hasn’t been performing particularly well. Conte’s midfield selections can be questioned as imbalanced and leaving the defense vulnerable and individual players continue to make mistakes expected of teenagers trying to break into the first team.

But part of it has been circumstances. As critical as one can be of Conte, and there is quite a bit to be critical of, some of it has been the hand he’s been dealt. Due to an unfortunate mix of injuries and spread of Covid-19, a number of key players have been forced to miss time.

While we all patiently await the vaccine, one can only hope things start to break the club’s way with the squad’s health.

Upcoming Matches:

Inter vs Bologna, Saturday December 5th, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, kickoff 20:45 CET

Inter vs Shakhtar Donetsk, Wednesday December 9th, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, kickoff 21:00 CET

First Team Fitness:

Marcelo Brozovic: One of the aforementioned players who has tested positive for Covid-19. The squad’s Trequartista has missed several weeks now due to his Covid testing results. Prior to round 5 of Champions League fixtures, there was some discussion that Brozovic might be able to play because of favorable test results but that proved to be false.

Over the past several weeks he’s tested positive, negative, positive again, and, most recently, “weakly positive.” This is all confusing, right? How could his test results vary as much as they have.

Without going too far into detail, it comes down to the tests themselves. The two most commonly used tests around the world are the rapid nasal swabs and the PCR, which is a type of test looking for genes from the virus.

Both tests are fairly reliable and can be trusted when they indicate a positive result since false positive results are very rare.

However the rate of false negatives is significant, with various studies citing anywhere from 10 to 40% of negative test results being wrong. This can happen for any number of reasons from a bad sample to user error conducting the test.

Unfortunately Brozovic seems to have fallen into the false negative category with some of his tests if media reports have been accurate.

The weakly positive results is perhaps the most confusing. When the PCR test is done, it’s looking for 2 specific genes unique to Covid-19. A positive result indicates both genes were detected. But when only 1 of 2 genes is found, the “weakly positive” result is what is reported.

When this happens, the person is treated as it’s a positive test result because it’s assumed if 1 gene is present, then the other is there as well but didn’t show up on the test due to a poor sample or human error.

For the time being Inter will have to continue to wait for Brozovic to get multiple negative tests. When that will happen is anyone’s guess.

Aleksander Kolorov: Also currently sidelined due to Covid-19. He continues to test positive and his status for the weekend match against Bologna is in doubt.

While his performances this season haven’t been particularly good, he does still provide the club with the depth needed to rest some of the other first team players especially in matches like the weekend fixture versus Bologna.

Radja Nainggolan: The Belgian midfielder missed out on the last week’s worth of matches due to what was announced as a soleus injury by the club. Simply put, he has a strained calf.

The club didn’t issue any further information about the extent of the injury nor has there been much information since it was announced last Friday.

In all likelihood he will miss the weekend match against Bologna, however his absence is unlikely to be noticed as he’s hardly played at all this season.