According to ESPN, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has told Spanish TV channel La Sexta that he’s feeling ‘very well’ after being diagnosed with the Coronavirus just under two weeks ago.
The Gunners announced that the Spaniard tested positive for Covid-19 on March 12.
The Premier League had announced that it intended to go through with games as normal before Arteta’s diagnosis.
Arsenal’s match against Manchester City a couple of days before news of Arteta contracting the virus surfaced, was postponed due to several Gunners coming into contact with Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Marinakis was one of the first figures involved in English football to test positive for the coronavirus.
Here’s what Arteta told La Sexta:
“I’m very well now, I feel that I have recovered,”
“It took me three or four days to start feeling much better and with more energy, to leave the symptoms behind and now, the truth is that I feel very well.”
“Everything happened very fast, on Tuesday afternoon I was feeling so-so and I went to see the doctor but he wasn’t there.”
“I got a call from the board of directors after training while I was in my car and they told me that the president of Olympiakos had tested positive and everyone that had been in contact was at risk.”
“I went on to tell them that I wasn’t feeling well and that we had a situation because we had lots of players that had been in contact with them [Olympiakos].”
“We had a game against Manchester City the next day and obviously we couldn’t put lots of people at risk without saying anything.”
“I had the test done last Wednesday and I was diagnosed on Friday, when we had to communicate it to the Premier League that I had tested positive,”
“Obviously all those that had been in contact with me had to go into quarantine, and consequently, games had to be suspended.”
It’s great to hear that the 37-year-old feels as though he’s back to his usual self.
It’s quite alarming that the relevant authorities only took action once Arteta and Chelsea starlet Callum Hudson-Odoi contracted the virus.
Football definitely isn’t a priority at this time, I believe that the beautiful game shouldn’t return until this threat is completely over.
Yes, little doubt that this country was slow off the mark to realise the sheer extent of this crisis. But I do not think, considering how we Brits mostly are , as freedom loving, hostile to being government ordered folk that any government in this country could have done much better. I am not being an apologist for this government, not at all, BUT I do believe in fair play and which among us can TRULY say we saw this rapid development better than our rulers? IF youTRULY did, then you would have a case to complain, But NOT otherwise, my fair minded brain tells me. We are ALL also responsible for our own safety and only a coward puts it all on government . Take great care and never forget that WE are the individuals, not society as a whole, who are MAINLY(not exclusively, but mainly) the cause of our own good or ill health. Sometimes this obvious fact gets forgotten ! NOBODY FORCES US TO SMOKE, DRINK TOO MUCH , EAT TOO MUCH, BE A COUCH POTATO ETC. Or to go into crowded spaces right now!