I’m one of 29: Matavesi
Flying Fijians forward Sam Matavesi is hopeful that they will be allowed to play against Georgia following a coronavirus outbreak.
The hooker is currently self-isolating in his hotel room in France after becoming one of 29 Fijian players to test positive for COVID-19.
Due to the positive cases, Fiji’s matches against France, Italy and Scotland were not able to go ahead.
Matavesi told Force.Net his experience with the virus, saying: “I was part of the 29. I was one of the ‘famous 29’, so they say.
“I feel all right now. Last Saturday,
I was pretty rough to be fair. I had all the classic symptoms like a high temperature and it felt like a bad flu, if that makes sense.
“I’ve had a bit of chesty cough and a bit snotty and phlegmy throughout the whole week now. I’ve also lost my sense of smell and taste so, yeah, the full shebang,” he added. “It’s my 11th day now so I feel fine except I can’t smell or taste.”
The Fiji team are all based at the same hotel and special guidelines have been put in place to protect the players.
Matavesi said: “At the hotel we are at now, everyone’s in their own rooms.
“When you go to eat, obviously it is is self-service but you have your own tongs on your plate.”
He said the players are “100 percent not sure” how they got infected.
“Somebody’s obviously brought it in and it’s come in and done the worst so to speak,” he said. It went from one to four and then 29.” Despite the ordeal, the Navy player is looking forward to getting back on the field and has earmarked the Georgia match in Scotland as a potential return.
He said: “We were so close to playing France. It was the Thursday before we were about to fly to play France so we got close to one game. “I think from that the Italy game was definitely going to be cancelled. “You can definitely understand why because it’s not an ideal situation but, touch wood, we should be all good to go for Georgia.” He added: “We’re tested on Monday and I think if all the tests come back negative, we can show the Scottish Government our results and I think we can go and play Georgia.”
The Flying Fijians are believed to have resumed training after they had observed all the health protocols.