Essendon Football Club can confirm it has received formal notification from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that one Essendon player has been deemed as having close contact with Conor McKenna.

Following McKenna’s positive COVID-19 test on Saturday afternoon, the club provided the DHHS a comprehensive overview of its training activities, meetings and other relevant data as well as documented training footage. 

James Stewart has been deemed as having close contact under the DHHS guidelines and will be required to self-isolate for a 14-day period. After being re-tested on Monday afternoon, he returned a negative result. 

All players and staff underwent testing on Monday afternoon and these results have all since returned as negative. 

“This has clearly been a sensitive and delicate matter, and as a club, the health and wellbeing of our players and staff, particularly Conor and James, has been our number one priority throughout this period,” chief executive officer Xavier Campbell said.

“The public nature of our industry has made this task even more difficult but we are now pleased to have reached an outcome with the DHHS.   

“On behalf of the club, I also wish to thank the Department of Health and Human Services for their significant work in recent days and for providing this information in a timely and professional manner.

“The players will formally recommence training on Wednesday morning at the NEC Hangar in preparation for our round four game against Carlton on Saturday night.”