‘I didn’t feel too right’ – Exclusive: Ex-West Brom star suffered with COVID-19 symptoms
We’re delighted to welcome former West Brom striker Kevin Phillips as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns…
Kevin Phillips has revealed he suffered from coronavirus symptoms a few days after attending the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Organisers of the four-day-long horse racing festival have come under fire for not scrapping the event with more than 251,000 people attending this year.
Professor Tim Spector, from King’s College London, has recently revealed that Cheltenham, and Liverpool’s Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid, contributed to an increase of coronavirus deaths in the UK because they were not called off.
Phillips attended Cheltenham to work for talkSPORT on Wednesday, March 11 but he admits that it was a mistake.
“I have to hold my hands up, I shouldn’t have gone,” the ex-Baggies striker told West Brom News in an exclusive interview.
“On the weekend after the Wednesday I didn’t feel too right. I had a sore throat, lost my sense of smell and taste. Obviously, I caught it so I self-isolated.
“It was an error [to host the festival]. I kind of understand, at the time, why it went ahead but, ultimately, that’s not an excuse.
“It’s hindsight, isn’t it? They probably shouldn’t have gone ahead but they did. Hopefully there’ll be lessons to learn from that in the future.”
West Brom striker Charlie Austin told the Telegraph on March 20 that he suffered symptoms consistent with COVID-19 after attending Cheltenham Festival.
He has recently said that he originally thought the illness was a hangover before speaking to West Brom’s club doctor Kevin Conrod, who advised him to self-isolate.
Last week, the Baggies squad and staff members were tested for coronavirus and out of over 1,000 tests in the Championship, only two came back positive and both of them were at relegation-threatened Hull City.
In other West Brom news, BBC One are set to air a documentary featuring the Baggies on Thursday night.
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