England cricketer Alex Hales on Tuesday issued a statement on his social-media handles soon after Pakistan's former Test captain and commentator Ramiz Raja claimed that the cricketer might have shown COVID-19 symptoms before flying back to England following the postponement of the Pakistan Super League.
While speaking to the media in Lahore after PSL was postponed on the day of its semifinal matches and almost 24 hours before the final, Raja said that Hales, who played for Karachi Kings in the league, might have shown a few symptoms although he had not taken any tests.
"What I know is that he is yet to have tests but we don't know whether the symptoms he has is of Corona or not. But we all now need to be very cautious and obviously adopt a common-sense approach to deal with this problem," Raja said.
Shrugging off the rumours, Hales shared his statement with the caption, "An update on my situation, stay safe everyone.”
"In the light of the speculation and rumour that is currently circulating within the cricket world and on social media, I felt I needed to give a full explanation of my situation," Hales said.
"Like many other overseas players, I reluctantly left the Pakistan Super League early because, with COVID-19 reaching global pandemic status, I felt it was more important to be with my family rather than face a period of lockdown thousands of miles from home.
"I returned to the UK in the early hours of Saturday morning feeling perfectly fit and healthy and with absolutely no symptoms of the virus. However, I awoke early on Sunday morning having developed a fever and followed the government's advice of self-isolation, a process I am obviously still following having developed a dry and persistent cough.
"At this stage, it has not been possible to be tested although I am hopeful that might be the case later today [Tuesday] so that I can get absolute confirmation of my current health status."
Fever and dry cough are among the symptoms for COVID-19, which has so far claimed more than 7,000 lives globally. Fever, dry cough and shortness of breath are some of the symptoms of the viral disease, which infected more than 170,000 people worldwide.
(with PTI inputs)
