The IPL has mandated a \u2018cardio-stress test\u2019 for all the players who have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus post recovery. However, the long-term effects of this virus on athletes is still largely unknown and health professionals and trainers warn about rushing back into playing competitively.<\/p>\n
Two Chennai Super Kings players tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, raising questions about how soon players who have tested positive should be pressed into action. On September 1, Deepak Chahar, one of the infected players of the CSK camp posted on his social media saying, he hopes to be back in action pretty soon as he feels much better and is trying to keep himself fit.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/twitter.com\/deepak_chahar9\/status\/1300806633480769536<\/p>\n
Ramji Srinivasan, high-performance coach and strength and conditioning trainer of India\u2019s 2011 World Cup team, warns against rushing the players back into action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a life-and-death issue. Just a stress test to test the pulmonary levels may not be enough. This isn\u2019t a fitness issue, it isn\u2019t like an injury; that\u2019s the first thing we need to understand. As a trainer, I don\u2019t want blood on my hands by rushing through. The IPL would be played in hot weather conditions and it\u2019s a high-pressure tournament where the stakes are high. The kind of stress a fast bowler, say, puts on his body is insane and we don\u2019t know how a body post-Covid (asymptomatic or serious) reacts to such severe intensity. We need a proper medical team to take care of the recovery process. Worldwide, studies are emerging about the post-Covid scenario for athletes, which warns us that it can even get fatal,\u201d<\/strong> Ramji said.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on what the doctors are saying and studies emerging, I would say at least two weeks of rest after they recover, after they test negative. Let the body stabilise, and then careful monitoring should be done along with a battery of medical tests from ECG to a blood test to confirm as much as possible that the recovery is proceeding well,\u201d<\/strong> Ramji says. \u201cThe truth is that we don\u2019t have enough information as of now and there is a thin line between will power that all athletes feel they have in abundance and foolishness. It\u2019s better to be safe than sorry.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Ramji reckons it is best to play safe and monitor the recovery period carefully with the help of medical professionals. \u201cWith the kind of money, fame, and potential benefit to their careers that IPL provides, it\u2019s understandable that players might want to get back to action quickly but it\u2019s the responsibility of the authorities to ease them back. Don\u2019t risk and regret later.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The players need to be carefully monitored for at least two weeks after recovering and the workload should be slowly increased under professional supervision. Chest x-rays are needed to see if it shows any scar, a CT scan of the chest may be required and a lung-function test should be done. Dr SK Chhabra, the pulmonary medicine head at Delhi\u2019s Primus hospital, says the tests should be followed with weight management to cover up nutritional deficiencies and that this should happen for five-six months after recovery. \u201cEven if it shows 100% recovery, the monitoring should continue. After that, there should be a pulmonary rehab.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n IPL teams will be playing three practice games among themselves. It is learnt the teams wanted these warm-up games to be played with other sides but the request wasn\u2019t approved by the IPL. With most of the players coming without any competitive games, it was decided to allow teams to play three warm-up matches among themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The IPL has mandated a \u2018cardio-stress test\u2019 for all the players who have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus post\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":38852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl"],"reading_time":"4 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to monitor players\u2019 health post-Covid<\/h2>\n
IPL teams to play 3 practice matches<\/h2>\n