Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

The first Bundesliga footballer to have been infected with the coronavirus has opened up about his fear after he suffered”fever, chills and tremors.”

Luca Kilian, who plays for Bundesliga side SC Paderborn told German regional newspaper Westfalen-Blatt about his ordeal.

He was the first Bundesliga player to test positive for COVID-19 and since then his entire team have been placed in quarantine at home.

The 20-year-old defender said it all started with a slight sore throat. He said: “A day later I got a headache but continued to train. On 12th March, I got the first heat attacks, I went straight to our team doctor, Dr. Hans Walter Hemmen, who immediately ordered a test.”

Until that point, he had only had mild symptoms. Unlike with most young people, Kilian says it then got worse: “I got a fever, chills and tremors. It was in this phase that I was afraid for the first time.”

After four days, he says “the fever finally went down” and he began to recover.

Luckily for him, hospitalisation was not necessary. He stayed at home with his parents, where he was isolated and treated by his mother, who worked as a nurse.

He said: “If I had stayed alone in Paderborn, I would have gone to the hospital.”

Speaking about his fear, he said he also carried it “around with me for the next few days.”

Kilian emphasises that football should only be played again “when the danger has been averted”, adding that the decision as to whether and how the season should end should be “made very carefully.”

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