Four Columbus Crew players test positive for COVID-19 ahead of MLS Cup Playoff game vs. Nashville SC

Four Columbus Crew players have tested positive for COVID-19, the club announced Wednesday night, four days ahead of Sunday's home match in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Nashville SC at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN).

According to the club press release, no additional players or staff tested positive on Wednesday.

The Crew is still scheduled to train on Friday and Saturday, and has not identified the individuals who have tested positive.

The Crew held press conferences on Wednesday afternoon. Coach Caleb Porter did not mention players had tested positive for COVID-19.

With the positive tests, the status of Sunday's game is in jeopardy. ESPN reported last week that if a game cannot be played because of a COVID-19 outbreak, that team with positive tests would likely have to forfeit the match.

In the play-in round, Inter Miami still played its game against Nashville despite three players who were unavailable because they tested positive for COVID-19.

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Given the timeline, it's likely those four players with confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 will be unavailable against Nashville. Major League Soccer's protocol requires a player who is asymptomatic to have two consecutive negative PCR tests within 24 hours to be cleared to play.

For someone with symptoms, the number of days since starting to show symptoms and since symptoms stopped are taken into account before that player can return.

All players will also undergo cardiac testing before returning to play.

According to the press release, the Crew received two initial positive tests on Sunday, the day after a 3-2 win in the first round of the 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs against the New York Red Bulls. The team was off on Monday and had two additional players test positive Tuesday.

The Crew will test every day this week leading up to Sunday's match.

Each player began self-isolating after the initial positive test, which was confirmed with a follow-up Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test. After the initial positives on Sunday, the club said it performed detailed contact tracing and sanitization of the training facility.

"The health and safety of all players and staff remains the highest priority for the club and the four individuals will remain in isolation, to be monitored by the club’s medical staff," the press release read. "The club has been in regular communication with Major League Soccer and local health authorities on the matter."

Earlier this season, the Crew had one player have a confirmed case of COVID-19 before play began in Orlando, Florida, for the MLS is Back Tournament. The Crew also had a game postponed in the regular season after two team operations staff members had confirmed cases of COVID-19.

This latest outbreak comes as Ohio continues to see soaring daily numbers of COVID-19 cases and Franklin County is under the highest warning level for coronavirus spread. Ohio recorded 10,835 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

The Crew decided not to have the general public attend last Saturday's game after the county was upgraded to a "purple" warning level for coronavirus spread. Franklin County also implemented a stay-at-home advisory that went into effect last Friday at 6 p.m. ET

Follow The Columbus Dispatch's Jacob Myers on Twitter @_jcmyers.