England Women manager Sarina Wiegman has affirmed that she is "very hopeful" of being back on the touchline for Wednesday's Women's Euro 2022 quarter-final with Spain Women.
Wiegman oversaw an opening 1-0 win over Austria and a record-breaking 8-0 success over Norway in Group A earlier this month, which sealed the Lionesses' place in the last eight.
However, the 52-year-old then returned a positive COVID-19 test ahead of the showdown with Northern Ireland at St Mary's last Friday and has since been isolating at the England camp.
Arjan Veurink was in the dugout as England stormed to a 5-0 win over Kenny Shiels's side on the South Coast, setting a new record for the most goals in a group stage at the Euros in the process.
England have been rewarded with a quarter-final tie against Group B runners-up Spain, which will take place on Wednesday evening at the Amex Stadium.
Wiegman - who has been observing training from a distance this week - has revealed that she is "feeling well" but is still unsure if she will return for the clash in Brighton.
"I'm good, thank you. I'm feeling well. I'm ready to go but I still have to wait. Yeah of course I'm very hopeful but we'll see what happens. We know if I can't be there I'll be around in another way," the Evening Standard quotes Wiegman as saying.
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"We had a line so I was in contact all the time. I was watching the game [against Northern Ireland] of course from here so we stayed connected all the time. If necessary, that is what we will do tomorrow again.
"It's not the worst nightmare just a situation we have to deal with. We thought what could we expect? What could develop? This was one of them. We set everything in place.
"Unfortunately we already practised one moment when I was not around. It looks further away but I'm actually really close. I'm just doing my job virtually or outside with a mask on. It's very unfortunate, you don't want this.
"I'm involved in all of the training, I'm just staying at a big distance with the mask on. With the technical staff we have such a work flow that is so fluent so everyone knows what to do and we are so well connected."
England's playing squad have also been impacted by coronavirus ahead of their quarter-final, with goalkeeper Hannah Hampton set to miss out after testing positive.
However, Manchester United's Mary Earps has played every minute of the tournament so far for England and is expected to start on Wednesday evening either way.
Arsenal defender Lotte Wubben-Moy was absent from the 8-0 thumping of Norway due to COVID-19, but she was back on the bench on Friday for the win over Northern Ireland.
Ben Knapton
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