Pontus Jansson started Sweden’s first match of the World Cup against South Korea after Manchester United defender Victor Lindelof came down with illness.
Speaking after the match, Jansson was asked by the Swedish media how the situation had gone with his teammate, and explained: “When I woke up, I was told Vigge would play, but I got a text before we went to the stadium: ‘Get ready. Feeling bad again.’
“Then I became very happy and a little nervous at first. But also very sad. Then I went to him in his room. Vigge was very sad. He cried. I got a tear in my eye.”
Then, when asked if he’d been afraid of catching whatever Lindelof had, the Leeds United defender said: “No, I wasn’t.”
Unfortunately, those words have come back to haunt Jansson and he’s one of several players considered too ill to travel today with Sweden for their next match of the tournament. Filip Helander and Marcus Rohdén won’t be going either and the team physiotherapist is also ill.
Expressen call it a ‘nightmare’ scenario for Sweden, and manager Janne Andersson is quoted as saying: “Three players got a little worse in the stomach last night. For safety reasons, we didn’t want to bring them on the flight today. We didn’t know what it was that made them bad, we expect them to come tomorrow.”
National team doctor Anders Valentin added: “Because we cannot rule out that it can be contagious, we decided, for security reasons, to leave them in the hotel. Our physiotherapist Fredrik Larsson is left in Gelendzhik with the players. Everyone is on the road to improvement and we expect them to join tomorrow.”
Aftonbladet expect Lindelof, now well, to replace Jansson against Germany.
