Lin announced in June he was rejoining the Chinese Basketball Association’s Beijing Ducks after a failed NBA comeback.

He tested positive for coronavirus on his third day in quarantine after flying to Shanghai from San Francisco, the 32-year-old posted on Chinese social network Weibo.

“I was shocked and a little bewildered,” he wrote of his initial reaction to the diagnosis.

Lin, who said he had been vaccinated in the US and tested negative for coronavirus multiple times before travelling to China, was unsure when he had contracted Covid-19.

The athlete said he was receiving treatment in Shanghai, and was showing light symptoms.

Lin began his NBA career with the Warriors in 2010, going on to play for the New York Knicks and several other US teams. He has struggled with injury in recent seasons.

China requires travellers from abroad to submit to multiple Covid-19 tests as well as weeks of strict isolation.

Despite some of the world’s strictest containment measures, the country is currently facing its largest outbreak in months after infected airport workers sparked hundreds of cases.