Former Aston Villa winger, Gabriel Agbonlahor has admitted he was truly scared stiff after contracting coronavirus, as he never felt so ill in his entire life, megasportsarena.com reports.
The Nigerian-born Villa academy graduate was struck down with COVID-19 for 10 days in March and, though he has since made a full recovery, ‘Gabby’ admitted it was a really worrying period for him.
Although data from the Office for National Statistics shows black men and women are nearly twice as likely to die from coronavirus as white men and women has led to concern among some players, Gabby is one of many soccer stars or their relatives that caught the virus.
Chelsea midfielder, N’Golo Kante – whose brother died from a heart attack in 2018 – and Watford captain, Troy Deeney – whose young son has suffered from breathing difficulties – have both opted against returning to training with their team-mates and Agbonhalor empathises with the pair.
He has now cast his mind back to those torrid days, as he battled to regain good health, while worrying about the worst possible outcome, considering that the deadly respiratory dieseaee has claimed many lives worldwide, and Agbolanhor admitted he was lucky to overcome the scourge.
Agbonlahor told Sky Sports: “I caught the virus on March 15, and I’ve never felt so ill in my entire life. The symptoms I had, they were terrible, so if I was a player and I was speaking to the players, I wouldn’t want them to go through what I went through as it was a horrible experience and the virus is very deadly as we’ve seen.
“Why would you want to risk yourself and risk bringing it back to your kids? You don’t want to do it. I’m sure the likes of Troy Deeney, N’Golo Kante will be at home or using a local area to do the same sessions that the players at Watford and Chelsea are doing.
“They’re not sitting at home and doing nothing. They’ll still be keeping to the fitness that the other players are doing, but just not doing it at the training ground, which for me is fine.”
