Two more players on the Dallas Cowboys tested positive for COVID-19, the team announced on Wednesday.
Dallas’s head coach, Mike McCarthy, told reporters on Wednesday that offensive lineman Connor Williams and safety Damontae Kazee tested positive for the virus, placing them on the COVID-19/reserve list, according to The Associated Press.
Williams and Kazee join star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, safety Malik Hooker, defensive tackle Carlos Watkins and new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, according the wire service.
McCarthy also said that he doesn’t know when the players and staff members will be able to rejoin the team, the AP reported.
Safety Israel Mukuamu returned to practice after time spent on the reserve list, the AP noted.
The news comes as the U.S. is currently seeing another wave of COVID-19 infections, due in part to the highly contagious delta variant that is hitting unvaccinated pockets of the U.S. particularly hard.
The NFL commissioner’s office issued a memo in July to all 32 clubs warning them about forfeiting games this season if they are unable to play due to outbreaks among players unvaccinated against the coronavirus.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday that he wants his players to be a part of the team by getting vaccinated, The Dallas Morning News reported.
“All of that comes to the same conclusion as far as what you agreed to be as far as a player, be a part of a team,” Jones told a Dallas-based sports radio station.
The Cowboys, who are the subject of the HBO Sports documentary series “Hard Knocks,” are set to kick off the 2021 NFL season against the defending Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next month, the AP reported.