Michael Hussey Recalls His Days In Indiia When He Tested COVID-19 Positive During IPL 2021
Published - 24 Nov 2021, 07:25 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:01 AM
Former Australian player Michael Hussey opened up on being contracted COVID-19 virus during IPL 2021.
Hussey, who is Chennai Super Kings’ batting coach in IPL, had tested positive for the dreadful virus along with bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji before the league was immediately suspended in May.
I was changing my shirt four or five times: Michael Hussey
Hussey went back to one of the worst moments of his life and spoke about how he felt and the assistance he got from the CSK medical staff.
“I had a bad fever to the point where I was changing my shirt four or five times a night from sweating out. I had a relentless dry, barking cough. And I was really tired. I would try and sit at my desk to do some work, but quickly feel the need for a lie-down. I would wake up from what felt like a quick nap to realise three or so hours had passed,” Hussey wrote in his column for Fox Sports.
“The doctor with the team was concerned. He realised I was probably in the worst place in the world to get Covid at that time. Delhi was recording hundreds of thousands of known new cases a day, there were very few hospital beds and many, many more people lining up outside the hospitals in need of them,” he further mentioned.
CSK team doctor shifted Michael Hussey from Delhi to Chennai
When Hussey tested COVID-19 positive, the situation in India was worse as people were struggling to get a bed in the hospital for COVID-19 and were dying due to a lack of oxygen cylinders.
Hussey said the team doctor shifted him from Delhi to Chennai and had to be kept on the stretcher while being covered by a body bag.
“If things turned bad, the doctor wasn’t sure if I could get the medical assistance I would need. They decided the best thing to do was to fly me back to Chennai, the team’s home base,” Hussey wrote.
“All I could do was trust them. Once we got to the airport, I was wheeled straight onto the plane on a stretcher inside the body bag. The air ambulance flight to Chennai took about three and a half hours. Then it was back into an ambulance and straight to a quarantine hotel,” he added.
The second leg of IPL 2021 was held in the United Arab Emirates in the September-October window as Chennai Super Kings emerged champions to clinch their fourth IPL title.
