Padraig Harrington bares his mind on battle with Covid-19

Padraig Harrington told Off the Ball about his experience of COVID-19, his recovery, and isolation in a hotel room.

The Ryder Cup captain is taking part in the Genesis Open at Pacific Palisades from Thursday, shortly after testing positive for COVID.

Speaking from isolation in his hotel room, Harrington said

“I worried when the symptoms started coming on, but I never lost my sense of taste or smell, those sort of neurological things are more of a worry. I had one friend who went through a similar case as me, so he was the best resource for me because he was telling me how he was mentally up and down – you get a sniffle or a cough at some stage and you think it’s back.

“I am sure that if this was it for everybody, they would be good with that but clearly it is a very serious thing for a lot of people.”

For athletes in particular, the issue of long-term fatigue is a worrying aspect to recovery.

“Long COVID is an issue, and I would have been pretty well-versed on what the scenario is if you get COVID. But you have to study up on what you have to do once you’ve had COVID. It’s quite complicated, it doesn’t make it easy to travel, that’s for sure.

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“I can’t travel back to Ireland unless I get a negative PCR test, that could take months. There are complications, it is not as straightforward as you think afterwards, even though supposedly, I’m immune from it for eight months or possibly as nobody really knows.

“I have to do everything because you could still transmit it even though you are unlikely to necessarily get infected.”