Coronavirus: Chinese women footballers raring to go ... at a stretch

There was barely room to swing a cat, let alone kick a ball, as China’s women’s soccer team trained in a Brisbane hotel this week.

China’s players train in their Brisbane hotel’s corridor. Picture: Twitter

There was barely room to swing a cat, let alone kick a ball, as China’s best female soccer players trained in the corridors of a Brisbane CBD hotel this week.

The team has been quarantined in the hotel since flying to Brisbane on January 29 from Wuhan via Singapore. Wuhan had been scheduled to host Olympic qualifiers involving Thailand, Taiwan, China and Australia last week. But the outbreak forced organisers to move the games to Sydney.

Photographs of the team stretching on towels in the hotel corridors appeared on Twitter on Tuesday. The 32 players and staff are expected to emerge blinking into the Queensland daylight on Wednesday, at the end of their quarantine period, before flying to Sydney ahead of a game against Thailand on Friday.

China’s players train in their Brisbane hotel’s corridor. Picture: Twitter

While China’s players, who have shown no symptoms of the deadly virus, have been bouncing off the hotel walls, the Matildas have been training in Sydney. They will meet at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney’s west next Wednesday.

The Chinese are without several players who were unable­ to travel to Australia having returned to Wuhan for Chin­ese New Year before it was placed in lockdown.