Joshua Kimmich is allowed to socialize again, his isolation after the corona infection is over. But the national player is no longer available to FC Bayern. Because his lungs cause problems. Kimmich is by no means the first top athlete to experience this.
“I’m fine and I got through the really long quarantine period yesterday. I’m dying to get started again and to be with the team.” With these words, Joshua Kimmich begins his latest Instagram post. He also shows a photo of himself during sprint training. Full power, full commitment, muscles tense. It looks like everything is fine again after his corona infection at the professional footballer of FC Bayern.
Kimmich’s further sentences make it clear that it is by no means that: “However, I have to be patient as I am not allowed to exert full load immediately due to slight infiltration in the lungs. I will still watch the remaining three games this year from the couch and from January we attack together again. ”
The intensive care physician Christian Karagiannidis understands a slight infiltration of the lungs to mean that the bronchi or alveoli are affected by the virus, but that the lung function is less restricted. The Covid-19 infection, which Kimmich contracted unvaccinated, has left its mark on the body of the competitive athlete. The infection that with a vaccination might not have been so bad or that he could have avoided altogether.
A vaccination that Kimmich rejected because he had concerns about the vaccine, because he shared the popular but scientifically false fear of long-term effects, because he wanted to wait for a dead vaccine that has not yet been fully developed and certainly not approved. His trainer Julian Nagelsmann had just indicated that his unvaccinated professionals would rethink and talked to the “Welt am Sonntag” about being able to “shelve the subject soon”, but by then it was at least too late for Kimmich. As a contact person, he had to go into quarantine twice, and on November 24, the 26-year-old also tested positive for the corona virus.
“I was almost dead for the first seven days”
Now he’s released from quarantine and officially recovered, but it’s not enough for professional sport. Kimmich is not alone in this. Not even at FC Bayern, because the year 2021 is probably over for Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who was also unvaccinated and infected shortly before Kimmich. “With Choupo, the after-effects of his corona infection are such that we wait another week until the next examination is due and then we decide whether he can be more stressed. He is of course negative, but he still has problems with the one do not allow early training, “said Nagelsmann on Tuesday.
Kimmich and Choupo-Moting are two prominent and very topical cases in the Bundesliga. Your trainer knows what an infection can do, as he was affected himself. As a vaccinated person, he had only mild symptoms, but he knows from the past how hard it can also hit young top athletes. As a trainer at RB Leipzig, he saw it firsthand at Hee-Chan Hwang. The South Korean, who is currently on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers, got infected on a national team trip in November 2020. And then he was very seriously ill, said Nagelsmann at the time: “He said to me: ‘I was almost dead for the first seven days’. He was not doing well.” It took Hwang almost two months to return to the field.
After months, Freiburg’s professional is not yet back in training
Rune Jarstein is believed to have shaken her head when he found out about the two Bayern professionals. The Hertha BSC goalkeeper fell ill in April and had to be treated in a clinic at times. “During the first few days in the hospital, I couldn’t even watch football on the iPad. During that time, I was outdoors twice and had to sit in a wheelchair,” he reported to the “Bild” newspaper in October. Jarstein suffered an inflammation of the myocardium as a result of the disease and had to stop exercising for almost six months.
“On my first walk in Berlin I was broken after ten minutes. It took a while, then got better step by step.” The Norwegian also spoke out clearly in favor of the vaccination: “I was vaccinated again after my illness. I think it’s good and important to do that. I am very clearly in favor of the vaccination,” said the 37-year-old of “Bild “. “Maybe it would not have hit me so hard if I had been vaccinated in the spring.”
Despite all the calls, Freiburg’s Jonathan Schmid was also unvaccinated. The Frenchman was infected at the end of August and suffered a difficult course, and he will not be used again this year either. His trainer Christian Streich gave an insight into the ZDF’s “Current Sports Studio” in mid-November: “The lung values are good, otherwise the values of the organs are also good. He is gaining weight again and everything looks as if he is one hundred percent recovered. ” It will take some time for the 31-year-old to return to the Bundesliga. Streich is hoping to play “in friendly matches or in the second team”. He said at the end of November: “We have to be careful that we introduce him appropriately, as he has been quite physically affected.”
“At times thought that I would not make it”
There are other examples from football, such as Tim Kleindienst from the second division club 1. FC Heidenheim, who had “a hell of a headache” and needed three months “to get back on track to some extent”. Or Jacob Bruun Larsen from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, who was out for two months last year. Numerous other people affected from other sports show that the story of the young, fit and indestructible top athlete is just a myth. NBA superstar Joel Embiid said at the end of November that he was afraid for his life: “At times I thought I wouldn’t make it, it was that bad.”
Ice hockey professional Jannik Möser from the Grizzlys Wolfsburg suffered an inflammation of the heart muscle after his infection – at the age of just 25. Tom Daley, British Olympic synchronized diving champion from the ten-meter tower, also recently revealed that he was ill earlier this year. It was so bad for him that he could not climb stairs alone and before going to bed checked whether his husband knew what to do if he was no longer breathing.
“Vaccination is especially important for younger people”
“With Corona we know cases that regress quickly and we know cases that take a really long time to regress, even if the course is initially mild,” said intensive care physician Karagiannidis of the German press agency. He is aware of patients who had to struggle with the consequences of the disease in the lungs for up to a year. For Kimmich, this means that, in the worst case, his lung problems could keep him busy for a long time.
On Tuesday, coach Julian Nagelsmann said of his midfielder: “He’s scratching his feet to get back on the field. But it has to be reasonable.” And further: “We just have to be careful, even think carefully about Saturday.” Sports director Hasan Salihamidzic added on Wednesday: “We know our Jo, of course he will give everything to come back quickly. But we have to decide together what is best and be sensible.” It is now clear that it will take time. Kimmich played his last game for Bayern on November 6th. He will also miss the last three games of this year against 1. FSV Mainz 05, VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg.
“Even if it takes a little longer, maximum performance is not possible and that is what professional athletes need. That is why it is actually precisely the group of younger people for whom the vaccination is one of the most important things in order to improve their performance really good at the high level, “says Karagiannidis of the dpa. The RKI recommends vaccination four weeks after infection at the earliest. Many fan comments under Kimmich’s post also deal with the vaccination. In addition to wishes for recovery, many ask, many urge him not to rely on his recovered status. Kimmich is missing. Now a little longer than expected.