DR Congo’s final friendly before the World Cup will take place behind closed doors due to concerns surrounding the Ebola outbreak currently affecting the African nation.
The match against Chile is scheduled to be played in the French city of Orleans on Tuesday, with kick-off set for 16:00 BST.
The game had originally been arranged to take place in Cadiz, Spain, before a local mayor signed a decree preventing it from being held there as a “precautionary measure.”
World Cup hosts the United States require all squad members and officials to have spent 21 days outside DR Congo and be symptom-free before they are permitted to enter the country.
None of DR Congo’s players, who all play for clubs outside of the country, are understood to have visited their homeland recently, though some support staff and fans have travelled from there.
The squad have been finalising their preparations in Marbella, Spain, following a 10-day training camp in Belgium that included a 0-0 draw with Denmark.
This tournament marks the first time DR Congo has qualified for the World Cup since 1974, when they competed under the name Zaire and finished bottom of their group following defeats by Scotland, Brazil and Yugoslavia.
The squad plan to base themselves in Houston during the tournament and are set to open their Group K campaign there against Portugal on 17 June.
They will then travel to the Mexican city of Guadalajara to face Colombia, before returning to the United States for a final group stage match against Uzbekistan in Atlanta.
The Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo has been caused by a rare species of the virus known as Bundibugyo, for which there is currently no available vaccine.
The World Health Organisation has warned that it could take up to nine months before a vaccine for this particular strain is ready for use.
The situation has cast a shadow over DR Congo’s historic World Cup return, with health authorities and football officials continuing to monitor developments closely ahead of the tournament.
