Rodgers reveals he and his wife were both struck by coronavirus
Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers has revealed he has had coronavirus.
The Foxes manager was ill in March and April, soon after the season was halted following Leicester’s 4-0 win over Aston Villa. His wife Charlotte was also unwell but both are now fine, with Rodgers taking training ahead of the Premier League’s return next month.
Former Celtic manager
Rodgers is the second topflight manager to have contracted the virus after Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta.
Rodgers said: “A week or so after we had broken up, I wasn’t well and it was later detected I had the virus and a week later my wife had it.
“We spent about three weeks, both of us, feeling the effects of it. We were nowhere near as bad as many others but we lost our smell and taste and our strength.
“I had a little feeling of what it was like, it was tough. Once we got back fit and well it made us really appreciate our health and I’ve taken the opportunity to get back to being as fit as I can be.
“The strangest thing was losing your smell and the taste, you lose your strength, you could hardly walk ten yards. It was similar to the time I was climbing Kilimanjaro. When you get to a certain point at altitude you walk and really suffer.
“The first time I tried to exercise I couldn’t run ten yards. It really does knock you but it wasn’t as serious as a lot of people have had. You come out of it grateful you are fine.”
Rodgers admitted he knew something was not right given his symptoms. “At the time I hadn’t been tested but I knew it was different. The headache you had, it felt really isolated on one side of your head. Your appetite goes, you can’t smell, taste and you feel weak. You think: ‘If I don’t have it I wonder what this is?’ That’s why we got the test, to be reassured.”
The 47-year-old is still being tested twice a week, in line with Premier League coronavirus protocols, with the topflight aiming for a restart date of 17 June.
Third-placed Leicester are due to play Watford next while they are also scheduled to host Chelsea in the FA Cup quarterfinals at the end of June.
Fans and football figures took part in a scaled-down ceremony in Brussels yesterday to mark the 35th anniversary of the Heysel tragedy.
Thirty-nine people died during violence at the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus.
Flowers and wreaths were laid at a remembrance plaque at the King Baudouin Stadium, which was renovated and renamed after the tragedy but the event was limited in size because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Prior to the final, hooligans from a stand holding Liverpool fans smashed their way into an adjacent section for Juventus supporters. In the ensuing chaos, the victims were either trampled or suffocated to death as they tried to flee the violence. Others died when a retaining wall collapsed.
Sandro Follacchio, a Juventus supporter who was at the match, said: “Every year I come here to give the flowers for the community of Italians, because I will never forget this night, never, never, never.”
The match controversially went ahead, allowing the authorities to restore a semblance of order in the chaos and arrange a relatively peaceful departure of the fans of both clubs. Juventus won 1-0.
The scenes of death and destruction remain etched in soccer’s collective memory.
Juve fan Pietro Fragapane said at the service: “Unfortunately, I saw the dead. And lo and behold, it is a memory that will remain etched in memory forever.
“And I would like to say again that football is a celebration of a sport and not a place where hooligans fight in the defeat of victory.”
The disaster led to English clubs being banned indefinitely from European competition with the suspension lifted for the 1990-91 season.
It also proved to be a catalyst for much stadium improvement and reconstruction across the continent.