Eight footballers from top-flight Mexican team Santos Laguna have tested positive for the coronavirus, the club said Wednesday, jeopardising attempts to restart the national league after two months of suspension.

A decision on the possible resumption of the Mexican league, the Liga MX, had been expected by the end of the week, and the tests were carried out with a view to resuming training. "This particular situation makes resuming the league more complicated," Santos Laguna's owner, Alejandro Irarragorri, told TV sports channel TUDN.

He also hinted that the situation at Santos Laguna could be even worse, because so far only 22 results have come back out of 48 tests on players and coaches. Liga MX said the players with COVID-19, whose identities have not been revealed, were asymptomatic.

Two other clubs, Guadalajara and Monterrey, are also carrying out screening for the disease. Monterrey said it had not identified any positive cases. With more than 6,000 fatalities, Mexico has the second highest coronavirus death toll in Latin America after Brazil.

Play stopped in the Liga MX in mid-March, and less than a week later the league's president Enrique Bonilla announced he had caught the disease, without serious symptoms. The president of San Luis, another club in the Mexican league, has also been diagnosed with COVID-19.