Sri Lanka’s wicket-keeper batsman Kusal Perera who missed out on the recent home series against India due to a shoulder injury he suffered during the England tour at the beginning of the year, has now tested positive for COVID-19.
The Sri Lankan squad is scheduled to enter a bio-bubble around 25 August in preparation for the upcoming South Africa series. As Perera will already be in isolation, he will be allowed to enter the bubble once his isolation period is concluded.
“The protocol when someone tests positive is that we keep them isolated for ten to 14 days, and then we'll do a cardiac assessment. If he comes back okay from the cardiac assessments and other tests, that I don't see why we should keep him away from the South Africa series,” Dr. Daminda Attanayake, the Sri Lanka team's chief medical officer, told ESPNcricinfo.
Even though this COVID-19 diagnosis is not expected to keep the southpaw out of the South Africa series, Attanayake suggested that it is not clear that Perera’s shoulder injury has healed for his return to international cricket.
Sri Lanka and South Africa will be locking horns in a three-match ODI and as many T20Is from 2 to 14 September with all six matches to be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
As far as the 31-year-old Perera is concerned, he has played in 22 tests, 107 one-day internationals, and 50 T20I matches for his country. He has hit two centuries in Tests and six in ODI cricket.
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
