Benfica dealing with another COVID-19 outbreak

As the COVID-19 pandemic's case count continues to soar around the world with a new and more contagious variant, Benfica has not been spared in their dealings with the virus as the club has been hit once again with an outbreak. The outbreak at this time is not at the extent of last season's outbreak and with vaccines in the picture we hope that the case count continues to remain at the current level. 

Benfica will be without players Vlachodimos, Pizzi, Meite, Radonjic, Yaremchuk and Svilar, who have all tested postive over the last 72 hours while left back Alex Grimaldo has returned to training since his positive result over a week ago. Benfica have called up B squad keeper Leo Kokubo to back up Helton Leite with the club down to one keeper as they prepare for Sunday's league encounter against Pacos Ferreira.

Update: Jan Vertonghen has also tested positive for COVID-19

Atletico Madrid interested in Benfica keeper

Spanish club Atletico Madrid is once again linked with a player from Benfica as the Lisbon club looks set to negotiate another move with the Madrid giants. Atletico are looking for a keeper to push current number one and former Benfica shot stopper Jan Oblak and feel that the clubs Greek starter is the perfect player for the job.

Atletico are said to be willing to offer Benfica their choice of current club players Hector Herrera and Geoffrey Kondogbia as part of the negotiation which could be valued at €20M according to Fichajes.net. Atletico and Benfica's last player negotiation was the €127.8M deal that saw Joao Felix move from Benfica to Atletico in the summer of 2019. 

Benfica looking at Atletico Mineiro defender

Benfica is interested in Atletico Mineiro center back Nathan Silva according to reports coming out of his native country Brazil. Benfica are in negotiations for a loan move for the 24 year old defender with a purchase option of around €5M to make the move permanent at the end of the season. 

Nathan appeared in 52 games across all competitions in 2021 between the Brazilian Champions and Goianiense, scoring 4 goals while setting up another. Nathan has been a member of Mineiro for many seasons but only earned regular playing minutes with the Belo Horizonte side this season, catching the attention of Benfica.