While the Covid-19 virus continues to spread across the United Kingdom, the number of Premier League footballers officially affected by it remains quite low.
Unfortunately for Pepe Reina, the goalkeeper didn’t manage to escape it, as it was announced the Aston Villa loanee had tested positive and would be staying at home in isolation for as long as his symptoms were prevalent.
Having now recovered, the Spaniard gave an interview to Corriere dello Sport where he explained everything that happened to him, starting with the fact he hasn’t been outside for 18 days.
He said: “I don’t miss company. It’s me, my wife Yolanda, five children and my two in-laws. The house is large and loneliness doesn’t come here. However, I was isolated after experiencing the first symptoms of the virus. Fever, dry cough and headache that didn’t go away, that feeling of exhaustion…
“The only fright was when I was lacking oxygen for 25 minutes, as if my throat had suddenly narrowed and the air couldn’t go through. The first six, eight days, I spent them locked in a room. Then I started going out at night, when the kids and my in-laws slept. I still try and avoid Yolanda’s parents. They are no longer very young”.
Describing it as a flu, ‘only heavier’, Reina was also asked about his professional situation, as he’s currently on loan from Milan at Aston Villa, but with the season currently suspended, he has no idea what his future holds.
He explained: “I am on loan until May. But is it May, perhaps June, July, August… I had to come to Birmingham because I needed to play every weekend, I wanted to feel like a protagonist again and the challenge Aston Villa offered me was ideal.
“Now I don’t know when or how it will end. Here the situation has worsened in the past five, six days. The restrictions are lower than in Italy. You can still go out for a walk or a run in the park even if the government has asked everyone to stay at home as much as possible”.
Reina was immediately installed as Aston Villa’s starting goalkeeper when he arrived at Villa Park in mid-January, and played six games in the Premier League before football was suspended, during which he conceded 13 goals and kept one clean sheet.
