With only one game to its credit this season, the University of Wisconsin football program will seek to end a dubious streak of back-to-back COVID-induced cancelations by preparing for a visit to Michigan this week.
Claiming it has gained control of an outbreak that approached two dozen infected players and staff, the team resumed practice Monday morning following another week of caution.
"We had no new positives on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was a great sign," Alvarez said in a university release. "That's when we started thinking Friday could be a day we could get the team together to start doing things with an eye towards having a regular practice week this week. So we were cautious on Friday and Saturday, split guys into groups, and just did conditioning. The team then got together and held its regular Monday practice this morning.
Related: Wisconsin Cancels Second Football Game Due to COVID
The Badgers defeated Illinois in its season opener, but starting quarterback Graham Mertz tested positive for COVID-19 the next day. More positives led Wisconsin to cancel games at Nebraska and at home against Purdue in the weeks that followed. One more cancelation would put the Badgers on the brink of Big Ten Conference championship ineligibility.
According to the Wisconsin Football twitter account, as reported by Channel3000, the Badgers as of yesterday were down to five active cases (two players and three staff members) and hadn't encountered a positive test case in five of the previous six days.
"We feel confident that we have a handle on the situation and are excited to play this week at Michigan," Alvarez said. "As we have done throughout, we will continue to monitor our testing results and base our decision on those results."
