Montpellier head coach Michel Der Zakarian has expressed his disappointment at the cancellation of a friendly against Marseille previously scheduled for Wednesday.

The Ligue 1 tune-up match had to be scrapped after multiple players for Montpellier tested positive for COVID-19.

In an interview with L'Equipe, Der Zakarian lamented that it will be difficult for his squad "to regain rhythm and increase playing time" just three weeks ahead of the start of the 2020-21 season.

“We are disappointed not to be able to play this friendly match. We are three weeks away from the resumption and we would have liked to face the Marseillais. The friendly matches make it possible to regain rhythm and to increase the playing time of the players to reach a very good level for the resumption of the Championship.

It's a shame that this match was canceled, especially since our first friendly match against Sète had already been canceled, a Sète player having also been contaminated. We have trained normally since the resumption. We took the test on Monday morning, and in the afternoon we learned that one of my players was positive. This morning (Tuesday) , we trained in groups of six and we respected the distances for each player.

We only did running work, without the ball. We tell players every day to be careful. Within the club, in the structure of the club, everything is well organized [...]. There is good distancing for everyone. After training, they go home to shower. The difficulty is that you cannot control the players at home. The players have to be responsible, they are big boys. You must not go out, try to go to the street as little as possible, and put on masks, even in the street, to protect yourself and others. "