Leicester City head coach, Brendan Rodgers, has revealed he had the novel COVID-19 after the Premier League was suspended in March.
Rodgers is the second Premier League manager to confirm he has had Covid-19, with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta also testing positive in March.
Rodgers, who said he has now fully recovered from the virus, disclosed this in an interview with BBC radio. The 47-year-old said: “My wife and I had it [COVID-19] just after the Premier League was suspended.
“I could hardly walk and it reminded me of walking up Mount Kilimanjaro. We had a week off when we were supposed to play Watford [14 March] and then the week after that, I started to struggle.
“It reminded me of when I climbed Kilimanjaro. The higher you went the more you suffered with acclimatisation and the harder it was to breathe,” he added.
“I remember trying to run for the first time [after becoming ill] and it was hard to go 10 yards. I had no real appetite and it was a weird sensation of eating food without ever tasting and smelling what it was.
“It has made me really appreciate being fit and healthy.”
“For three weeks I had no smell or taste. I had no strength, and a week after, my wife was the same. We were tested and both of us were detected with the virus.” he told BBC Radio Leicester.
Rodgers climbed Kilimanjaro in aid of charity in 2011, weeks after winning the Championship play-off final with Swansea and guiding the club to the Premier League for the first time.
He was part of a 17-strong team representing the Football League.
The Foxes have returned to training with the league expected to return in June, and Rodgers says it has been “brilliant” to have the players back together.
“It was good to have that contact again and to be near them,” he said.
“The last couple of days we have split into groups of 12, which is not normal, but how they have adapted has been really nice.
“The rhythm of it [training] has changed but I’m really pleased with them physically and it’s like they have never been away.“
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