The repatriation process of the Portuguese trainer detained in Mozambique was already underway when Alberto Lário tested positive to the new coronavirus and was admitted to the Military Hospital in Maputo.

Portuguese trainer Alberto Lário, detained in Maputo for documentation irregularities, was hospitalized after testing positive for Covid-19, a spokesman for Mozambique's Migration Services told Lusa on Tuesday.

"When we were handling the process for his repatriation, we found that he tested positive for Covid-19. So we need to wait for at least seven days, and at this moment he is isolated in a health unit," Felizardo Jamaca, spokesman for the Mozambique Migration Service in Maputo City, explained to Lusa.

Alberto Lário was admitted on Saturday afternoon at the Military Hospital in Maputo, a close source told Lusa, stating that the coach's health condition is "stable.

The coach, a figure who has been a reference for new generations of athletics in Mozambique, was arrested a week ago, allegedly because there were irregularities in his documentation.

According to the authorities, Alberto Lario has been in an irregular situation since 2019, the year his Foreign Resident Identification Document (DIRE) expired.

Alberto Lário, who was born in Mozambique and left the country at a very young age, has had an application for nationality "pending" for over six years, but the Mozambican Migration Service considers that the technician should have raised the issue with the authorities to which he submitted the application, adding that there is no proof of this request.

The coach's detention, which resulted from a denunciation made by the president of the Mozambican Athletics Federation, Kamal Badrú, generated a wave of indignation among Mozambican athletes, who decided to organize a march to the Mozambican Migration Service building on Tuesday of last week, demanding the release of "coach Lário", as he is popularly known (Lusa)