It was almost two weeks ago that Charlotte Kalla started showing symptoms of covid-19 and a few days later she tested positive.
Kalla misses the start of the competition season, but national team coach Stefan Thomson announced that she will start training easily at the beginning of next week.
But now it's up to her to do the right thing.
Focus on the heart
National team doctor Per ”Pliggen” Andersson talks about the extremely careful work of monitoring so that nothing goes wrong with the ski star's rehabilitation.
- In this case, we will do medical examinations that we do not normally do.
In the first place, we will focus on the heart.
Andersson states that an entire team of doctors is ready to follow Charlotte Kalla.
- We are several doctors who are involved in this since I have used much of my medical network to get an idea of what is a suitable strategy purely medically.
She is, to my knowledge, the first skier at this level to return after suffering from this.
FROM YESTERDAY: The national team doctor: "Difficult decision whether we should go or not"
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National team doctor Per Andersson thinks it is a difficult decision how to do with the world cup premiere in Ruka.
Photo: Bildbyrån / SVT
Pilot project
Kalla thus becomes a pilot project.
The experience that the medical team gets from working with her will be useful for other top-level skiers:
- Absolutely.
Each case we work with gives us increased knowledge about this that can be useful to others, he says.
National team manager Anders Byström testifies to the anxiety that the corona pandemic has created in many skiers.
Everyone has experience of coming back after a cold and traditional illness.
No one knows how a skier's body affected by covid-19 reacts to full load.
Holds heart and lungs?
- You always want to push this away, but now it has come closer through what happened to Charlotte Kalla.
We are all worried about the consequences it could entail, says Anders Byström.
"Gets medically worried"
The concern is shared by national team doctor Per Andersson.
- With the symptom picture that the virus shows, I am worried about the health of our riders, he says.
"Pliggen" means that in the future there may be more skiers who suffer from covid-19 and will return and compete in one of the toughest endurance sports.
- It also takes five days from the time you get a virus in your body until you get symptoms.
What happens to a skier, who during that time is on the starting line for maximum load, but does not feel any symptoms?
There are so many issues that make you medically worried.
ARCHIVE: Cold isolated with covid symptoms (November 10)
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Charlotte Kalla has shown symptoms of covid-19.
Here during a training in September.
Photo: Bildbyrån.