Football professionals like Kai Havertz, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Ilkay Gündogan, Paul Pogba and Serge Gnabry are on the list of athletes who have tested positive, as are tennis player Novak Djokovic, NBA star Kevin Durant, Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton , Ski flying world champion Karl Geiger or wrestler Frank Stäbler.
Some of them had little or no symptoms. Others are still suffering from the consequences of the disease. For example, the three-time wrestling world champion Frank Stäbler, who was infected in October. Doctors have confirmed that the coronavirus has attacked his lungs. Stäbler has lost more than 20 percent of his productivity due to the virus disease and he wonders whether he will ever be as fit again as he was before the corona infection.
Football national player Ilkay Gündogan also suffered from symptoms after his diagnosis in September: initially from fever and body aches, plus severe sore throat and headache, later on there was a loss of taste. The Manchester City player said he felt constantly tired and took an afternoon nap after almost every practice session. Which was not the case before.
How great is the risk of long-term consequences after a corona infection for professional athletes?
The risk of long-term consequences should not be underestimated, as the example of ice hockey player Janik Möser shows, who would actually start the new DEL season on Sunday with the Wolfsburg Grizzlies against the Krefeld Penguins. In October, Möser tested positive for Corona. He felt very fit, but the results of the examination showed a completely different picture. In subsequent examinations by a specialist at the Berlin Charité, myocarditis was diagnosed, which is attributed to the infection with the coronavirus. Training and league games are currently unthinkable. The Wolfsburg defender is only allowed to go for a walk and will probably be out for most of the winter.
3 weeks ago the Grizzlys Wolfsburg and Janik Möser searched the public specifically to raise awareness of the topic: “With my case, I would like to point out to other professional and amateur athletes that they should not take corona infection lightly.” Because: Corona not only attacks the lungs, the heart can also be damaged. This is confirmed by cardiologists from the Frankfurt University Hospital, among others. They found out that even a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause heart damage. Apparently regardless of the severity of the infection, existing previous illnesses and the general course of the acute illness.
Even if you don’t notice anything about an infection, you can’t be sure that Sars-CoV-2 will pass without a trace. Stubborn long-term consequences are exhaustion, shortness of breath, headaches, heart palpitations and sleep disorders. Not only patients with severe but also with mild infection are affected. And that although all the test values can be in the normal range.
Long-term consequences for athletes after a Covid-19 disease are also dealt with in Cologne. Since the beginning of June, the Institute for Circulatory Research and Sports Medicine of the German Sport University has been conducting the study “Covid-19 in high-performance sport” together with the Rhineland Olympic Training Center. So far, around 150 squad athletes have been tested for Covid-19 as part of the annual sports medical examination. In addition, there were other athletes who specifically visited the doctors after a corona infection. The antibody status was positive in around 10 percent of all athletes.
These athletes will now undergo a sports medicine examination every four months for a year. If the athletes have no symptoms and the test values are normal, they can carefully start training again. Athletes with symptoms will continue to be monitored closely.
A stress ECG or a heart echo, that is An ultrasound examination of the heart is not necessarily sufficient; in individual cases, magnetic resonance imaging is also useful, says the Cologne cardiologist Dr. Thomas Schramm. “With a heart echo, you can rule out severe myocardial inflammation, but not a slight one.“After a positive corona test, Schramm recommends a longer break before resuming training than after a normal infection. “Why do you let a player like Ilkay Gündogan train or play again when his body tells him I’m totally exhausted after every training session and have to go to bed? That is a clear sign from the body that something is wrong.”
Corona infection should definitely be taken seriously, says Schramm. Because there are also many unclear processes. “We are fortunate that most of our squad athletes will be able to recover from the infection in peace after the Olympic Games have been postponed. We don’t have the pressure of having to be ready for action and play again quickly, as in professional football!”
The head of the Cologne study, Dr. Jonas Zacher. It is still too early for meaningful findings. However, Zacher had the impression that a corona infection often dragged on longer than other flu-like infections. Affected athletes had told him “it pulls like chewing gum.” Slight changes in the lungs were found in one of the athletes. After losing her sense of taste, an athlete can taste salty again, but not yet sweet again.
Most athletes would take a corona infection well. Regular sporting activity strengthens the immune system, but Zacher recommends athletes to take more care and protect themselves from corona after particularly intense and strenuous training phases. The immune system is particularly susceptible to infections after high-intensity training sessions, a training camp, or competitions. The sports scientist advises athletes to take it easy for two weeks after the last symptoms have ended: “Healing after a corona infection is super important!”
Stand: 18.12.2020, 15:21
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