Brendan Rodgers: Leicester City manager says he had coronavirus

SourceBBC

-

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers says he “had no strength” after contracting the coronavirus in March.

Rodgers is the second Premier League manager to confirm he has had Covid-19, with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta also testing positive in March. 

The 47-year-old says he suffered with “breathlessness” before fully recovering from the virus.

“I could hardly walk and it reminded me of walking up Mount Kilimanjaro,” he told BBC Radio Leicester.

“We had a week off when we were supposed to play Watford [14 March] and then the week after that, I started to struggle.

READ ALSO

“For three weeks I had no smell or taste. I had no strength, and a week after, my wife was the same. We were tested and both of us were detected with the virus.”

Rodgers climbed Kilimanjaro in aid of charity in 2011, weeks after winning the Championship play-off final with Swansea and guiding the club to the Premier League for the first time.

He was part of a 17-strong team representing the Football League.

“It reminded me of when I climbed Kilimanjaro. The higher you went the more you suffered with acclimatisation and the harder it was to breathe,” he added.

“I remember trying to run for the first time [after becoming ill] and it was hard to go 10 yards. I had no real appetite and it was a weird sensation of eating food without ever tasting and smelling what it was.

“It has made me really appreciate being fit and healthy.”