Ex-Chelsea doctor explains how football stars are vulnerable to Coronavirus

Tanish Chachra | 14/03/2020
Ex-Chelsea doctor explains how football stars are vulnerable to Coronavirus

Ex-Chelsea doctor explains the vulnerability of football star with the outbreak of the coronavirus which halted the football activities.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus has massively affected European football and have compelled the governing bodies to call off all the major league in the region amidst the rising number of victims of the disease.

Ex-Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro explains how players are highly vulnerable while the disease is massively spreading worldwide. “Professional players have been shown to be regularly immunosuppressed,” Dr Eva Carneiro said, as per the Daily Mail.

“This has been demonstrated by both blood tests and the rate and incidence of the upper respiratory tract and other infections, which is how a virus like this starts,”

“That’s due to the amount of sport they play in. The physical activity, playing at a professional level, with games sometimes every 72 hours, as well as training creates a strain on the body,” Dr Carneiro added.

The points made by Carneiro has been the major concern for UEFA and other Football associations too, as the game is a contact sport and the virus pose threat to staffers along with the players.

“It means they have to enter an airport even though they might be travelling by private jet,” Dr Carneiro said. “Travel can also mean a change in sleep patterns, arriving back in the early hours of the morning, creating fatigue which again can make players susceptible.

“They also are part of families who are exposed to the greater community,” Dr Carneiro continued. “Fixtures also mean exposure to other teams, staff, nationalities, the latter having regular travel exposures of their own, with differing immunity profiles.”

Also read: Ronaldinho wins six-a-side football tournament in Paraguayan prison; scores 5 goals

So far, Mikel Arteta, Daniele Rugani and Callum Hudson Odoi are the prominent names who have been tested positive of the virus this week.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Chelsea Eva Carneiro

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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