Paulo Dybala returns to field after 4 positive COVID-19 tests

Popular football star Paulo Dybala of Serie A club Juventus posted a picture of himself training on his Instagram account on Wednesday. Within a few hours, comments by global football fans supporting Dybala started pouring in. Over 6,000 comments wishing that he would never get sick and welcoming the “symbol of recovery” were written.

The reason why fans are cheering for Dybala looking healthy and practicing shooting at his team’s training center is that he had been fighting COVID-19 for a while. It was March 22 when he revealed that he was infected with COVID-19. “I find it hard to breathe and cannot practice not much more than five minutes,” the footballer talked about his first symptoms in the beginning.

His suffering, however, had continued even after his treatment plan began with self-quarantine. He repeatedly received positive test results even when his conditions improved. According to CBS Sports, Dybala was tested positive four times for six weeks, including the first test result. Thankfully, the nightmare-like fight has finally ended. “Dybala was tested negative for two COVID-19 tests,” Juventus announced last Wednesday. “He no longer needs to be self-quarantined.”

“I’ve never missed football games and training this much. I want to put on my football shoes and run on the filed to score goals,” said Dybala who has been leading Juventus’s striking along with Cristiano Ronaldo. “I will do my best to recover my physical performance, which may have suffered during the time off.”


Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com