Players returning after testing positive for COVID-19 will require extensive testing, as the CONI chief medic warns coronavirus can damage the heart as well as lungs.
Italy seems to have reached the peak of the pandemic and numbers of new cases, deaths and ICU admissions continue to drop over the last few days.
That means plans are starting to take form for how sport will return, with a date of May 20 floated, but the effects of the virus are yet to be fully understood, especially for athletes.
Players returning after testing positive for COVID-19 will require extensive testing, as the CONI chief medic warns coronavirus can damage the heart as well as lungs.
Italy seems to have reached the peak of the pandemic and numbers of new cases, deaths and ICU admissions continue to drop over the last few days.
That means plans are starting to take form for how sport will return, with a date of May 20 floated, but the effects of the virus are yet to be fully understood, especially for athletes.
“Those who tested positive for coronavirus need to have a full health screening before they can be given the all-clear to resume physical activity,” Professor Antonio Spataro told Il Giornale.
He has since 2013 been the Director of the CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) Institute of Medicine for Sport.
“We need to establish if and how the virus has impacted on the athlete’s physique. This is an issue of prevention as well as current health and we can only remove certain doubts with rigorous testing, starting from an ECG under stress to a spirometer.
“The issue with COVID-19 is that it can affect everything from the cardiac activity to the respiratory function, as they are complementary and fundamental. Players need a specialist in sporting medicine to run a full gamut of tests, a complete screening. Further tests will then only be needed for anomalous cases.”
Several players have left Italy during the lockdown and they will require a quarantine period of at least 14 days after returning to the country.
“Playing behind closed doors isn’t sufficient, as we have already seen, because there is still contact between players. As for training, it has been too long since the last game, so in effect they’ll need to start a pre-season style of training all over again.”