PARIS: Lionel Messi said on Thursday he needs more time to recover before playing again after contracting COVID-19 earlier this month.
Paris Saint-Germain star Messi, 34, tested positive while on holiday in his hometown of Rosario before flying back to the French capital on January 5.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has missed two PSG matches while in self-isolation.
“As you know I had COVID and I wanted to thank you all for the messages I received,” Messi posted on Instagram.
“It has taken me longer than I thought to be OK but I’m almost recovered and I’m looking forward to getting back on the field.
“I’m training to get back to being at 100 percent, great challenges are coming this year and I hope we can see each other again,” he added.
Since testing negative last week he has trained alone at PSG’s headquarters.
According to ESPN Argentina the former Barcelona attacker will miss this weekend’s home Ligue 1 game against Brest.
Messi’s club team-mates including Angel Di Maria, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Julian Draxler have also tested positive for coronavirus since the Christmas break.
The Parisians host Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie on February 15.
Messi ‘takes longer than expected’ to recover from COVID-19
https://arab.news/gq4fv
Messi ‘takes longer than expected’ to recover from COVID-19
- PSG star Messi, 34, tested positive while on holiday in his hometown of Rosario
- "It has taken me longer than I thought to be OK but I'm almost recovered,” he said on Instagram
Klaebo becomes 1st athlete to win 6 golds at a Winter Games as Norway sweeps 50km mass start
- Klaebo’s victory in the 50-kilometer mass start race shattered the nearly 50-year record
- Klaebo said he was overwhelmed with emotions crossing the finish line
TESERO, Italy: Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo completed his historic gold medal sweep of the men’s cross-country skiing events on Saturday by winning his sixth race and setting the record for the most golds by one athlete in a single Winter Olympics.
Klaebo’s victory in the 50-kilometer mass start race shattered the nearly 50-year record set by American speed skater Eric Heiden, who won five golds in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.
All of Heiden’s wins were in individual races and two of Klaebo’s have come in team events, so Heiden’s record for individual wins still stands.
Klaebo said he was overwhelmed with emotions crossing the finish line and couldn’t describe how he felt after repeating the feat he accomplished at last year’s world championships in Trondheim, Norway, when he won all six events.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It still feels really good to race, and I’m always looking forward to going out there and fighting for the medal.”
Klaebo’s teammates, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, took silver, and Emil Iversen, won bronze in a Norwegian sweep.
“I’m starting to believe maybe he is a machine,” Nyenget said of Klaebo, who sprinted uphill past him at the end to win in his trademark fashion. “It’s close to impossible to beat him in the finish.”
The three Norwegians broke out to an early lead and then continued to build the gap on their chasers.
In the final lap, Nyenget and Klaebo pushed uphill and dropped Iversen. Klaebo stayed in second waiting to launch his winning move.
As the two reached the final hill, Klaebo literally ran away from Nyenget and was bound for glory.
As he glided toward the finish, he pointed his fingers toward the sky, took one stride across the line, toppled over on his right hip and rolled onto his back.
France’s Theo Schely finished fourth, nearly three minutes back and Savelii Korostelev, a Russian competing as an individual neutral athlete, finished fifth at 3:38.3 back.
The highest-placed US skier was Gus Schumacher, who won a silver in a team relay, in 13th place.
The win extends Klaebo’s record for most career Winter Olympic gold medals to 11 over three Games. The previous record had been eight, which Klaebo broke Feb. 15.
Klaebo has the second-most Olympic golds overall. US swimming great Michael Phelps has 23.
The win gave Norway a record 18th gold medal and further increased their lead in the total medal count in these games to 40 overall.
The country set the record Friday for the most gold medals won by a nation at a single Winter Olympics when biathlete Johannes Dale-Skjevdal won the 15-kilometer mass start race.
