Ireland's final Guinness Six Nation's game against France in Paris next month is now in major doubt.
The French Government has today banned public gatherings of over 5,000 people as the Coronavirus continues to spread throughout Europe.
Ireland's final home game against Italy has already fallen victim to the pandemic after it was called off earlier this week.
As well as this, other sporting events around the world have already had to be postponed or canceled including Serie A games and PRO14 rugby matches as well as the Paris half-marathon, that was scheduled for tomorrow Sunday 1st March.
The announcement came this afternoon from French Health Minister Olivier Veran who said such events would mean “intermingling with populations from areas affected by the virus”.
There was a similar situation to this in 2001 with the Foot and Mouth disaster that saw the annual event completed in the autumn.
The postponement of fixtures now though would present tournament organisers with a headache as a busy global calendar leaves little room for maneuver in terms of rescheduling games.
Veran also said today that there were 16 new cases of coronavirus in France, taking to 73 the number of people affected since the end of January.
Two of these victims have died, including a 60-year-old French teacher and an 80-year-old Chinese tourist
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