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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
FRENCH Ligue 1 club Stade de Reims’ team doctor committed suicide on Sunday after testing positive for Covid-19 virus.

Stade de Reims is home to Warriors’ midfielder Marshall Munetsi.

Bernard Gonzalez (60) becomes the second high-profile sports personality from France to die as a result of the virus after former Olympique Marseille president and journalist Pape Diouf succumbed to the pandemic in his native Senegal late last month.

Reims president Jean-Pierre Caillot said the coronavirus had affected the club ‘in the heart’ following the death of their doctor.

Caillot described the 60-year-old doctor as ‘a man of science and literature with inexhaustible curiosity”.

“Words fail me, I am stunned by this news. This pandemic attacks Stade de Reims in the heart, he is a character who personifies Reims and a great professional of the sport who has left us. His mission at the club had been carried out with the utmost professionalism, in a passionate and even selfless manner. He is my personal doctor, and today all my thoughts, those of the club where he will remain a strong figure go to his wife and parents,” Caillot said.

France’s top two leagues are on a three-week lockdown, as authorities battle to contain the disease that has so far infected over 70 000 people, with over 8 000 succumbing to the virus in that country.

Gonzalez and Diouf’s deaths bring to four the number of football personalities that fell victim to the pandemic after 21-year-old Spanish coach Francisco Garcia and former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz.

A number of sports personalities across the globe have reportedly tested positive for Covid-19, among them Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, Juventus and Argentina forward Paulo Dybala and former Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini, who now turns out for Chinese Super League club Shandong Luneng.