The American sports world shut down soon after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. The NBA suspended its season within an hour of the news.
That was on March 11, and three and a half months later, Gobert is still dealing with one of the COVID-19 symptoms.
Gobert told French newspaper L’Equipe that he hasn’t fully regained his sense of smell. Here are Gobert’s comments, as translated by HoopsHype:
“The taste has returned, but the smell is still not 100%. I can smell the smells, but not from afar. I spoke to specialists, who told me that it could take up to a year.”
We’re learning more and more about COVID-19 each day, and this is another example of how scary the virus is. This is a 28-year-old professional basketball player, and he’s still experiencing symptoms from the virus three and a half months after testing positive.
How common is this? Will more pro athletes that test positive also deal with symptoms for months? And will this be far more common for people that aren’t young and don’t have the general health of a professional athlete? The questions like this go on and on, and we may not have firm answers on everything for a long while.
Despite the pandemic (which currently features rising COVID-19 cases across the country), the NBA still intends to restart the season on July 30 in Orlando.
Gobert hopes to be able to play, and his Jazz are actually part of the opening game against Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans on TNT.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.