Romelu Lukaku
Speaking in an Instagram Live chat with Belgian TV presenter Kat Kerkhofs, wife of Napoli striker Dries Mertens, Lukaku said the majority of the Inter squad had returned from the winter break in January suffering the effects of sickness.
"We had a week off in December, we returned to work and I swear that 23 out of 25 players were ill," Lukaku said, according to Football-Italia.
"I'm not kidding. We played against Radja Nainggolan's Cagliari and after about 25 minutes, one of our defenders [Milan Skriniar] had to leave the pitch. He could not continue and almost fainted."
Italy followed China as the epicenter for the coronavirus outbreak, recording its first cases at the end of January when two Chinese tourists in Rome were found to have the deadly disease.
But it wasn't until the end of February and beginning of March that there was a major jump in cases, leading to speculation that many had been unknowingly spreading the illness in the meantime.
Lukaku said that none of the team had been tested for Covid-19.
"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," he said.
"After the game there was a planned dinner with guests from Puma, 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."
No Inter Milan players have tested positive for the disease, and the illness could also have simply been the seasonal flu. Proof could be offered when Serie A resumes action and players are tested for the coronavirus, which also includes checking for antibodies.
The first Serie A player to test positive for the illness was Juventus defender Daniele Rugani, on March 11, with teammates Blaise Matuidi and Paulo Dybala later being confirmed to have the disease. Players at Sampdoria, Fiorentina and Hellas Verona have also tested positive for Covid-19.
Football in Italy was suspended indefinitely on March 9, although there are tentative plans to resume matches behind closed doors, potentially in May or June.
Italy has seen more than 24,000 coronavirus deaths and over 180,000 cases, but there have been signs of hope in recent days as infection rates have fallen.
We get all these stories about a friend of a friend. Hard to believe those.
So I'll give you my story. I suspect it is fairly representative of others' stories. I am over 50 , for context. but healthy (BMI 19-20%, no underlying anything). Was mountain climbing a few days before I got sick. Anyway, I was traveling internationally in January/February. While SARS-2-CoV wasn't a big deal when I left 20 January (my biggest worry was getting to airport in snowstorm), I sat on plane next to someone who said he was half-chinese who was just flying back home after working in China for 6 months. Never thought to ask him about where in China he had been working (I had been on a news/media fast for weeks, so no idea what was going on).
I stayed for two weeks in an isolated mountain home in a south american country, with about 20 people, some local and others who traveled from 10 countries, and within a few days of being there, we were ALL sick. Even the kids. We brought in a nurse (3 days in a row), who gave us all IV C, glutathione, etc. Even one 9 year old girl asked for an IV !!!!!! We took ancestral medicines known to kill viruses (including kambo, which kills malaria btw), but were still dragging. Very unusual for any virus to withstand all these treatments and still hang on! I remember the last day, several of us couldn't even make it into the final sweat lodge, even though we wanted to. I was still sick for 4 weeks after returning home, worse at first, then on and off. Weird symptoms (like muscle issues that made me "bend" at the ankles for a few days, causing a limp?), and corneal inflammation at 4 am one day that required compresses and multiple allergy pills, very painful, all came and disappeared; same as others, felt like I was starting to recover, would have minor relapses, but each relapse more mild, until one day i felt 100% again. It was long but a fairly mild cold. Fever never much more than 1 degree F, so very low fever, but the cough, and very minor (clear) fluid up from lungs, which has never happened to me before, about 3 weeks in.
Funny thing, the country where I visited has been locked down, but it was only 3 or 4 days ago that they had "the first case" in the entire south of the country around where I stayed. What that really means is just one person still is sick and got tested, but likely far more cases there and everywhere else. Some of the local people that arrived mid-week were already sick by the time they showed up, suggesting transmission was widespread.