There were several footballers who revealed and confessed the difficulties they had when they returned to high competition after contracting Covid-19. Joshua Kimmich and Alphonso Davies, both from Bayern Munich, were probably the epitome of it, as they left the team options for several weeks due to not being fit. Now is the time for Lionel Messi to talk about his own experience.
In an interview with TyC Sports, the PSG player explained that he had “everyone’s” symptoms when he tested positive last January. “A lot of cough, sore throat and fever. It cost me a lot and left me with scars. I was left with a lot of sequels and I couldn’t train. I came back and spent almost a month and a half without being able to run, it affected my lungs a lot. I wasn’t scared, but I came back early and that was worse. I sped up the recovery process and ended up getting hurt. But I couldn’t take it anymore, I wanted to run, I wanted to train. But in the end it turned out worse,” said Messi, who interprets this period as one of the reasons why he was slow to adapt to French football.
Alphonso Davies was diagnosed with myocarditis after having Covid-19 and will stop for weeks
“I had to get used to a different way of playing, because all my life I played in a certain way. Getting to a place where you don’t play the same and where you see football in a different way, with new teammates… In Barcelona I had the same colleagues for years and they knew me almost by heart. Everything was new to me. Also, I started the championship late because I arrived late at the club and then I had a knee injury that forced me to stop for a while. Between one thing and another, I couldn’t start. I couldn’t play three or four games in a row”, revealed the Argentine player.
In the same interview, Messi also recognized that the elimination from the Champions League, in the round of 16 against Real Madrid, was “a blow”. “We had tremendous hope in the competition. It was a blow, even more so the way it was. I have lived nearby for many years and I know what Real Madrid is. I knew it could happen because they score goals out of nowhere and automatically change games. I also knew that they were going to try to be up for the first 20 minutes. But then if there’s a weird play or a goal, everything changes. It happened to us and to all the other teams, ”he shot in reference to the playoffs of the You meringues against Chelsea and Manchester City.
Source: Observadora
