Exclusive by John Sinnott

Gascoigne played 85 minutes on his league debut

Paul Gascoigne remains committed to his new Chinese club Gansu Tianma despite a highly infectious global virus that started in China showing no sign of being contained.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) has killed 81 people and infected nearly 2,400 worldwide after first appearing in China's southern province of Guangdong.

Gascoigne is based in the north city of Lanzhou - one of the poorest and most under-developed parts of China - but Gansu Tianma's fixtures will require the club to travel south.

"I wouldn't have thought Paul's contract would be affected by the virus," Gascoigne's agent Wes Saunders told this website.

"Paul is based in the north of China in Outer Mongolia and also as far as I know there haven't been any cases in the capital Beijing.

"China's population is 1.6 billion, so put in context, the number of people affected by Sars in the region is relatively small.

Virus disrupts sporting calendar

"Paul didn't mention the virus when I last spoke to him. I've just also just talked to his friend Jimmy Gardiner and he said Paul seemed quite happy.

"I am sure that the club will take precautions when they have to travel south."

But Saunders admitted that if a quarantine was imposed in the south of China, then Gascoigne would be given the option of not travelling.

"You wouldn't want to go into a quarantined area," added Saunders. " He would tell the club of his concerns and that is something they would have to take on board."

The World Health Organisation, which has warned against travel to southern China and Hong Kong because of the disease, is now searching to find the source of the virus in Guangdong.

It has been reported that Guangdong Disease Control Centre now has data showing patients in the early stage of the outbreak were cooks and bird vendors, and that it suspected the virus was linked to animals.

Last weekend, playing in front of a sell-out 20,000 home crowd, Gascoigne scored on his debut and helped Gansu Tianma to a 2-0 win over Hailifeng.