Maria Pechnikova was forced to miss the ROC's clash with Switzerland after testing positive for COVID-19 ©Getty Images

Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) ice hockey head coach Evgeniy Bobariko has revealed COVID-19 cases reached double figures within his squad as they were knocked out of the women’s tournament at the Winter Olympics here.

The ROC went down 4-2 to Switzerland in the quarter-finals yesterday, ending a campaign that has been overshadowed by coronavirus issues.

Players from both Finland and Canada wore masks when they faced the ROC in the preliminary rounds due fears for their health.

Neither side played in masks yesterday, but Bobariko admitted the COVID-19 situation had affected their performances.

"If we weren't in this hard situation where we had 10, 11 people drop out [due to positive COVID-19 tests], then probably we would have shown a different kind of hockey here," said Bobariko.

"But I'll say it again, I personally am not shrinking away from responsibility."

Asked how players had become infected by the virus, Bobariko added: "Unfortunately, there is probably no one in the world that can answer that question, how we got into this situation.

"It was in [team training base] Novogorsk that we divided up the training into groups. 

"We had girls using two different changing rooms.

The ROC women's ice hockey team's campaign has been blighted by COVID-19 cases ©Getty Images
The ROC women's ice hockey team's campaign has been blighted by COVID-19 cases ©Getty Images

"We trained and prepared, and there was nothing to suggest this would happen. 

"Everything was fine. 

"And then we ended up in this situation.

"It seemed we were putting [COVID-19] restrictions everywhere, but unfortunately, this happened to us."

Diana Farkhutdinova, Angelina Goncharenko, Olga Sosina, Yekaterina Nikolayeva, Liana Ganeyeva and Lyudmila Belyakova tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the ROC's opener against Switzerland.

A delay in the release of the coronavirus test results from the ROC team resulted in their meeting with Canada being delayed by more than an hour.

Both sets of players wore masks when they returned to the ice before the ROC decided to take them off for the final period after receiving the test results.

Former International Ice Hockey Federation President René Fasel told TASS that he was "very surprised" when he saw players complete in masks, describing the situation as "nonsense".

Finland also played in masks against ROC over COVID-19 safety concerns.

Maria Pechnikova was the latest ROC player to contract coronavirus, forcing her to miss the last-eight meeting with Switzerland.

It was also reported that Victoria Kulishova and Elena Dergacheva tested positive for COVID-19 during the campaign.