Table tennis, by most estimates, is somewhere between the sixth- and eight-most popular sport in the world, with approximately 850 million followers. Soccer (or football, in most countries) is the runaway global consensus pick with 4 billion fans. Now, it appears that the smaller game is causing problems for the big one. As we speak, the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship (or Euro 2020, to its friends) is underway. Competing in Group D, Scotland fought to a scoreless draw with England on Friday. 20-year-old Scottish midfielder Billy Gilmour earned high marks in the tilt. Scottish Scotland and Croatia each need a win to advance, and face each other in the final group game today. Unfortunately for Scotland, they will be without the services of Billy Gilmour, who has tested positive for COVID-19. According to the Scotttish Football Association, "Having liaised with Public Health England since the positive test was recorded, Billy will now self-isolate for 10 days and therefore miss tomorrow's UEFA EURO 2020 Group D match against Croatia at Hampden." Scotland FA also claimed that Gilmour had not had any close contacts with his teammates. Hearing the most unfortunate news, Scotland's Andy Robertson quickly moved to eliminate evidence the contrary. The smoking gun was a video posted on Robertson's Instagram account, showing the two playing ping-pong with teammate John McGinn and without any of the pandemic protocols developed in table tennis over the last year. Despite Robertson's effort to erase his digital footprints, the video was widely viewed before it was deleted. Now, his and McGinn's availability for tonight's game are in doubt, along with Scotland's chances to advance. As of Monday, all of Scotland's players had tested negative for the virus. Despite its also-ran status in the global popularity contest, table tennis enjoys no schadenfreude when misfortune befalls a bigger sport. We wish Billy Gilmour a full and speedy recovery, and the best for the health and safety of all involved. This cautionary story only underscores the importance of transparency in the age of a pandemic, where a cover-up could turn a game into a super-spreader event. The truth shall set you free. In this case, as always, ping-pong is the truth.

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