Belgium international and Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku said 23 players out of the 25 first-team players of the club showed symptoms of the dreaded coronavirus in late December 2019.
The football star said they couldn’t ascertain whether it was coronavirus because they were not tested for the virus then.
As at that period, the virus had not been confirmed in Italy. The first official case in the country was confirmed on January 31st, 2020.
Prior to the first confirmed case in the country, the coronavirus was mostly ravishing Wuhan, China, where the unprecedented outbreak started in December 2019.
But as of Tuesday, April 21, 2020, the pandemic has infected over 183,957 people while 24,648 people have died from the dreaded virus within Italy. This means that the country has supposed the casualties reported in China which has over 82,788 confirmed cases with 4,632 Deaths.
I swear that 23 out of 25 players were ill, Romelu Lukaku Says
Romelu Lukaku says when Inter Milan played against Cagliari in January 2019, almost all the first-team players were coughing and were complaining of fever which are symptoms of the deadly virus.
He told Belgian television channel VIER via Instagram Live interview that during that match, a player had to leave the pitch in the first 25 minutes of the match because of fever.
Lukaku also told the station that he had to leave a meeting after the match to bed because he felt a fever he never felt for a long time.
“We had a week off in December, we returned to work and I swear that 23 out of 25 players were ill. I am not kidding,” he said.
“We played against Radja Nainggolan’s Cagliari (on January 26) and after about 25 minutes, one of our defenders had to leave the pitch. He could not continue and almost fainted.
“Everyone was coughing and had a fever. When I was warming up, I felt a lot hotter than usual. I hadn’t suffered from a fever in years.
“After the game, there was a planned dinner with guests, but I thanked them and went straight to bed. We never did the COVID-19 tests at that moment, so we’ll never know for sure.”
