Canada Soccer cancels men's training camp, match over COVID-19 concerns

The latest sports news:

• Canada Soccer cancels men's camp, match
• Canadiens extend pause in season
• Ducks-Red Wings game postponed
• Jets add trio of players to protocol
• Canucks' Chiasson tests positive
• Key withdrawals from European figure skating championships
• England's Manchester City in outbreak
• Quebec International Pee-Wee tournament postponed

Citing the pandemic and impact of the Omicron variant, Canada Soccer has cancelled its planned January men's camp and a training match in Florida.

The 40th-ranked Canadian men had been scheduled to play No. 122 Guatemala on Jan. 22 at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, ahead of three FIFA World Cup qualifying matches in the January-February FIFA international window.

Canada visits No. 76 Honduras on Jan. 27, hosts the 11th-ranked Americans in Hamilton on Jan. 30 and plays at No. 70 El Salvador on Feb. 2.

A men's under-20 camp that was planned alongside the senior side's Florida session has also been cancelled.

The senior camp, which was scheduled outside of the FIFA international window, would largely have featured players from Major League Soccer and others out of season.

The camp cancellation is another moving part for Canada coach John Herdman, who has already lost St. Johnstone midfielder David Wotherspoon to a long-term knee injury.

The Canadians (4-0-4, 16 points) currently top CONCACAF's final qualifying round standings with six games remaining in the eight-team round robin. Come March, the top three will book their ticket to Qatar 2022 to represent North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Canadiens won't return to ice until Sunday

The Montreal Canadiens are extending their pause on team activities as the club continues to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The Canadiens announced Thursday that both the NHL team and its American Hockey League affiliate, the Laval Rocket, will not return to the ice until practice resumes on Sunday.

Twenty-two Habs players and two coaches are in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol.

Montreal suspended team activities following Saturday's 5-2 loss to Florida.

The NHL previously postponed five Canadiens' home games indefinitely due to COVID-19 capacity restrictions and the team is set to play its next game Jan. 12 in Boston.

Two Rocket games set for Friday and Saturday have also been postponed.

Ducks-Red Wings postponed

The scheduled game Thursday night between Anaheim and the Detroit Red Wings has been postponed to Sunday because of COVID-19-related issues affecting the Ducks.

Anaheim placed center Sam Carrick, goaltender John Gibson, defenseman Hampus Lindholm and right wing Vinni Lettieri into the NHL's COVID-19 protocols.

The Red Wings also are set to play Saturday night at the Los Angeles Kings and end their trip Tuesday night at San Jose.

3 more Jets in protocol, Canucks' Chiasson positive

The Winnipeg Jets have placed three players and a video coach to the NHL's COVID-19 protocol.

The team announced Thursday that forward Jansen Harkins, defenceman Dylan DeMelo, goalie Arvid Holm and video coach Matt Prefontaine have all been added to the list.

The news came just hours before the Jets (16-11-5) were scheduled to visit the Colorado Avalanche.

Winnipeg also placed David Gustafsson on injured reserve and activated forward Cole Perfetti from the taxi squad.

Gustafsson suffered a lower-body injury in the Jets' 5-4 shootout win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.

The 21-year-old Swedish centre was appearing in just his second game of the season.

Meanwhile, Alex Chiasson is the latest Vancouver Canucks player to test positive for COVID-19.

Head coach Bruce Boudreau says the 31-year-old right-winger was held out of practice Thursday due to the test result, but he has not been placed in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol.

Five other Canucks players are currently on the COVID list, including forwards Brock Boeser and Phillip Di Giuseppe (Dec. 29), Justin Dowling (Dec. 30), Jason Dickinson (Jan. 1) and Elias Pettersson (Jan. 5).

Boudreau says he's hopeful Boeser and Di Giuseppe will be able to return to practice with the team on Friday.

The Canucks (16-15-3) are set to host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

The Sens (9-18-2) have been dealing with their own COVID-19 outbreak and had games in Ottawa and Seattle postponed this week.

Papadakis, Cizeron skip European championships

French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron will not skate for a sixth European Championship title next week because they are wary of the coronavirus disrupting their Olympic preparations, the French ice sports federation said Thursday.

Papadakis and Cizeron are skipping the Jan. 10-16 event in Estonia "to protect themselves from COVID in view of the Olympic Games in Beijing, their ultimate goal," the federation wrote on Twitter.

Papadakis and Cizeron won five consecutive European titles from 2015-19 and are also four-time world champions and Olympic silver medalists. They lost to Russian ice dancers Victoria Katsalapov and Nikita Katsalapov for the 2020 European title but haven't competed against them since.

Manchester City faces outbreak

A coronavirus outbreak at Manchester City put manager Pep Guardiola and seven players in isolation while four Serie A teams were ordered into quarantine and unable to play matches on Thursday.

City indicated it still plans to play its FA Cup match on Friday against Swindon with assistant coach Rodolfo Borrell stepping in after Guardiola tested positive.

The English Premier League champions said Guardiola was among 14 backroom staff and seven first-team players "isolating for COVID-related reasons." An unvaccinated close contact of an infected person also has to isolate in England, but details were not provided.

Meanwhile, at least four of Italy's 10 Serie A matches scheduled for Thursday won't be played after local health authorities ordered teams into quarantine amid rising cases.

Inter Milan showed up at Bologna's Dall'Ara stadium for its game despite knowing it wouldn't be played due to the host team having eight players test positive.

Quebec International Pee-Wee tournament postponed

The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament was postponed to May due to the rise of COVID-19 cases.

The tournament was scheduled to take place in February but has been postponed to May 1 thru 15.

"It is highly unlikely that the situation will resolve itself to such an extent that the Tournament can be held in  February. We believed in it until the end, but now it's better to move forward with another solution. We have  evaluated the different alternatives over the last few days and the best option for us is really to postpone early  May." says Patrick Dom, general manager of the Pee-Wee Tournament. 

With the change to May, the tournament structure has changed as from May 1 to 8, the AA-Elites, AA and A teams will  play their games and from May 9 to 15 the AAA, BB and School