CAPE TOWN - Former Proteas all-rounder Wayne Parnell has been forced to quarantine for an additional five days in the United Kingdom after being traced to have been in contact with someone who was Covid-19 positive.
Parnell travelled from South Africa via Kenya and spent 10 days training in Nairobi prior to arriving in the UK. South Africa remains on the UK national government’s red list.
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The 31-year-old, who has been signed as Northamptonshire's overseas player for the full duration of the 2021 season across all formats, will now miss the start of the English County Championship due his isolation period being extended to 10 days.
He arrived in the UK last week and was originally meant to spend five days in isolation before being allowed to go out under test-and-release guidelines, which require two negative Covid-19 tests being returned. Both tests have returned negative.
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Northamptonshire begin their County campaign against Kent at Wantage Road on Thursday.
"Unfortunately Wayne was contacted by track-and-trace," Northamptonshire's head coach David Ripley told Cricinfo.
"He was supposed to come to the ground to take part in training on Sunday, but got told he has to stay in quarantine. He won't be available for the opening round and it might take a while to get him fully up to speed.
"The first game was always touch and go, but it's looking more likely for the third game," Ripley added. "He won't have bowled for 20 days, so we'll have to see how he is. But we've signed him for the whole season across formats, so we don't feel we need to rush him."
Parnell debuted for the Proteas back in 2009 as a 19-year-old teenager and went on to play 111 international matches across formats for South Africa. His last played for the Proteas in the second Test against Bangladesh in Bloemfontein in 2017.