I wonder if I had Covid while in South Africa: Leach

London, June 28 (IANS) England spinner Jack Leach has admitted that he had coronavirus-like symptoms when he was in South Africa and he is not sure if he had the deadly disease itself.

Leach had been part of the England team that played a four-match Test series against South Africa between December and January and had to go back home before the third Test after suffering from sepsis.

Leach, however, says that had he exhibited the symptoms he had in South Africa, he would be suspected to have coronavirus.

“I do kind of wonder whether I had it in South Africa. If you had the symptoms I had in South Africa now, you would think ‘this is definitely coronavirus’,” Leach was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.

“I picked up this cough, temperature and just felt shattered. And having been through what I’d been through in New Zealand — with the medication I was on — I struggled to fight that off. I just remember feeling like my energy levels were so low,” he said.

Leach is part of the England squad that is preparing to take on the West Indies in a three-match Test series starting July 8. The series is the first since the cricket calendar halted due to the pandemic in mid-March and will be played in bio-secure venues.

The 29-year-old said that the medication he is on for his Crohn’s disease which he has been battling since he was 14 years old.

“The medication I’m on puts me at a little bit of a higher risk. But what I came through over the winter, it suggests that I can fight things off quite well and that I’m probably not as high a risk as others on that medication.

“Also, the fact that my Crohn’s is under control is great for me. I’m lucky that’s the case. The fact I’m fit and reasonably healthy, apart from that, gives me a good chance.”

–IANS

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