By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv will not travel to Cyprus to take part in the scheduled preseason tournament, the team announced Thursday.
The Israeli powerhouse officially canceled the trip to Greece for another scheduled preseason tournament after confirming several coronavirus cases for team members. It later became clear that the plans for the trip to Cyprus were also abandoned, as reported earlier by Walla Sport.
In addition, Maccabi announced one more player was found positive in the latest batch of coronavirus tests. Six team members, including five players, have been sidelined by COVID-19, early in the 2021 preseason.
The team led by Giannis Sfairopoulos was supposed to be part of the four-team field along with Olympiacos, AS Monaco, and Lavrio Megabolt in Greece. The Cyprus tournament had another potential prep game versus the Reds with Russian teams CSKA Moscow and Zenit Saint-Petersburg also on the list.
After players testing positive hopefully are cleared for action in about two weeks, Maccabi will instead face fellow Israeli sides, Hapoel Eilat and Bnei Herzliya in friendly games to prepare for the 2021-22 editions of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and domestic competitions.
The third preseason tournament, set to be hosted by Panathinaikos OPAP, and additionally featuring Anadolu Efes and Partizan NIS, currently remains part of the preseason schedule.