MIKEL ARTETA has urged the nation to help the NHS by staying at home to avoid the coronavirus which laid him low.
Arsenal’s Spanish manager has been devastated by the rising death toll in Britain and back in his home country and insists that isolation is the only way to beat the pandemic.
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Arteta, who celebrated his 38th birthday yesterday, was Britain’s first football figure to go down with the bug and reveals that his wife was also diagnosed positive.
He insists: “We are living in a unique situation and owe a massive gratitude to everyone involved in healthcare, hospitals, people in services and people, trying to provide food and transportation.
“I know the situation in Spain and we are a little bit behind them in the UK so I encourage everybody to be sensible and stay at home.
“We have to help the NHS as much as possible and give the opportunity for elderly people to get the treatment they require more than anyone else.
“I had a difficult three or four days with a bit of temperature, a dry cough and some discomfort in my chest.
“Now I am feeling completely recovered but my main concern was the people that I’d been in contact with. That’s when a bit of fear comes in.
“I was worried because I have my wife and three children at home with me and my missus and our nanny both went through it, but thank God the kids never got it.
We have to help the NHS as much as possible
“I set up a room and a bathroom just for myself but it was probably too late because the virus was already contagious and after the second day my missus started to feel the symptoms as well.
“We were reacting to the virus rather than preventing it and that is why I insist you should now stay at home to slow the process down and avoid a lot of situations.”
Arteta admits he has struggled to cope with more than two weeks away from the training ground and only limited contact with the Arsenal players via the club’s WhatsApp group.
But his enforced isolation has allowed him to catch up on quality time with his family and he admits: “I have three kids with a lot of energy and for 17 years I haven’t had the chance to wake up with my family and spend a lot of dedicated time with them.
“We are in a world where everything is social media, but this is a unique opportunity to realise how much we all need each other.
“How important is touching and hugging each other? I miss that with a lot of people I love and we can’t do that at the moment so we have to be emotionally more open.
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“We have to tell each other what we are feeling and emotionally I feel very fulfilled because now I am giving my kids everything, which is not something I’m not always able to do.
“We are living with a virus that is putting the world aside and transforming everything that we prioritise in life.
“So we have to learn these important lessons and not forget about them in two or three months’ time.”
