Kai Havertz has tested positive for Covid-19. He is not the first Chelsea player to do so, but he is the first where it might become real for onlookers.
It is very important to note that Kai Havertz is not the first Chelsea player to test positive for Covid-19. Callum Hudson-Odoi was the unfortunate first for that. Just as preseason was starting, the Blues had an outbreak where at least four but up to eight players tested positive or began to isolate.
Now Kai Havertz has tested positive and his symptoms are increasing in severity according to Frank Lampard. The main difference this time compared to the others is that the season is ongoing. There will not be an assumption that the previous cases were ignored, but they were easier for fans to put in the back of their mind as football wasn’t happening. Now a player is positive when the Blues have games coming thick and fast and it is not unlikely that others may test positive over the coming days.
But this isn’t about football because frankly, that doesn’t really matter. Yes, this is a website about Chelsea Football Club, but as Jorge Valdano once said, football is “the most important of the unimportant things in life“. The key point there being “unimportant” at times like this.
As this crisis has continued, more and more have demanded that fans be allowed back into stadiums. In some places, they have been. That ignores the reality though. This crisis is not fading away, it is getting worse. England hasn’t gone on lockdown again because this is almost over.
Yet football goes on, which is one part acceptable and one part kind of nuts. Overall, the Premier League and others have shown that they can isolate cases and prevent outbreaks well enough for things to continue. Even at Chelsea, Frank Lampard has mentioned the bubble that prevents him from mixing in players from the academy and vice versa.
But on the other side of that coin is international football, where UEFA, CONCACAF, CONEMBOL and all the others who see no problem sending players to all corners of the world to play. Whatever bubbles exist at club level are popped every time players from the Premier League mix with players from Serie A and players from MLS and on and on. Champions League football is one thing because it is at least to a continent and the mix and matching only happens on the field. But Thiago Silva going back to Brazil this coming break? Hazardous to say the least with Brazil third world wide in Covid-19 cases.
I love football. I assume you do to or else you wouldn’t have read this far into an article on a Chelsea website. But football is not important. Health and safety are important things. It is unfortunate that Havertz has Covid, but maybe it will shine a light on how vein so many are being about watching football, going to football, having internationals be played etc. One player missing on the pitch for Chelsea might make one recognize that it could just as easily be one person missing from their house.
Wear a mask. Keep your distance. Wash your hands which really should have been happening anyways. Don’t be stupid or petty or vein. Do what you have to now so the world might eventually get back to normal. Don’t just ignore Havertz’s situation like what mostly happened with Hudson-Odoi, Tammy Abraham, Christian Pulisic, and so many others. Focus on what is the most important of the important things in life before the most important of the unimportant things in life. Do the right thing.