You are young, healthy, under 30 years old, train regularly and play for a club in the Premier League, a top league in Europe. What can possibly go wrong? Well, you get Covid-19 and you suffer immensely. And that’s what happened to Karl Darlow, and occasional first choice keeper for Newcastle United. Darlow believes he caught the virus after attending the Euro 2020 final at Wembley, four days before he was due to have his first vaccination.The Toon keeper suffered from horrific pain before he led himself straight to the hospital, where he spent the next five days, of which three were on a drip, since he couldn’t swallow.’It felt worse than razor blades. It was like someone had just shut my throat off. Like someone had jammed something down my throat so I couldn’t do anything. I was so sore. It felt like I was suffocating. It was horrible. In and around my chest it was getting tighter. The longer it went on the more I started to think, “I really need some help” said Darlow to The Times.(5.50) SOUTHAMPTON (3.80) MANCHESTER UNITED (1.65)The biggest problem was that his condition quickly deteriorated from OK to bad, and he was scared, mainly because he didn’t know what can happen next.“I felt more comfortable knowing that I wasn’t in the house trying to do everything by myself, trying to find a way of getting around what is still the unknown. I didn’t know what I had or what was wrong. That was the biggest fear for me: what was coming next. From the couple of days when I felt absolutely fine to going to that, from zero to 100 so quickly, to thinking what could possibly happen next. That was the biggest fear” explained Darlow.After being released from hospital, the problems continued, as he experienced every Covid-19 symptom there is.“I had everything: diarrhoea, fevers, headaches, the obvious, the lethargy. I couldn’t be bothered to do anything. Being in the house on my own was tough because I still felt like I needed to eat and drink and I ended up losing weight” said Darlow.Salah closer to another record, contract talks with Liverpool beginNewcastle reserve keeper is back in training, but he won’t return to action until September at least, since he needs to get back in shape, and is working hard to regain the muscle he lost during his battle with the virus. And his boss Steve Bruce had a good point when talking about Darlow’s example.“For any young people out there who are not having this jab, here’s a prime example. Karl found himself in hospital for the best part of a week, he’s dropped over a stone and a half in weight and it’s really knocked him around. There’s a 30-year-old who was hospitalised by this thing – young, fit, healthy and it’s left him in a very, very poorly situation. He’s getting bit by bit a little bit stronger, but it basically wiped him out, so just because you’re under the age of 30, you’re not immune to it. There we have evidence in our squad of how sick even young people can get. We’ll give him as much time as he wants” said Newcastle boss.
