One of the few professional footballers to have shown symptoms for the Covid-19 virus, Arsenal WFC’s Pauline Peyraud-Magnin is now recovering at home after struggling through the worst of the illness.
Still ‘wiped out’, the goalkeeper took the opportunity to talk to Le Parisien on Tuesday in order to spread even more awareness about it all, as, while she was never officially tested positive, all signs pointed towards her being one of the many thousands to have been infected.
Explaining she spoke to a doctor over the phone who said she ‘ticked all the boxes’, the Arsenal player revealed it lasted for around 10 days with ‘ups and many lows’.
She continued: “My main message is for people to realise it’s very serious and they need to stay at home, to be very careful, to protect themselves. That’s why I’m talking about the days I was ill”.
Asked how she felt when she was going through it, she added: “I was very scared. I was far from my family. Arsenal were bringing me medicine (paracetamol) and food so that I didn’t have to leave my house. I was worried the symptoms would get worse and that I would have to go into reanimation in hospitals in a medical system I don’t know.
“Everything about this virus is scary. My dad is a fireman, my mum a nurse. They tell me what’s happening in France. I have a friend who helps in a supermarket, another who’s a truck driver who told me he wasn’t able to shower for a week as he went across France in his lorry”.
Now that she is no longer presenting symptoms, Peyraud-Magnin explained Arsenal keep in touch every day, with every player given a specific training schedule.
While she hasn’t started hers yet because she’s still recovering and getting her energy back, she expects to be able to do so soon, but as for collective training: “No one knows for now. We’re waiting”.
