BERLIN, March 25 — Germany’s opening 2022 World Cup qualifier against Iceland today will go ahead despite one of Joachim Loew’s squad testing positive for Covid-19, the German football federation announced.

"The match will be held, without any doubt,” the federation’s spokesman Jens Rittner told AFP subsidiary SID after talks with local health authorities.

Bild tabloid identified the player as twice-capped forward Jonas Hofmann who plays for Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Another German international, the eight-times capped RB Leipzig defender Marcel Halstenberg, is considered his close contact.

Despite testing negative he will also have to isolate, ruling him out of calculations for the 1945GMT kick-off in Duisburg.

The rest of Loew’s men are available to play, although Bild noted that "it’s highly likely the players will be retested” before the game. — AFP