I'm kinda loathe to bump this thread, but there's a
good article of on BHU and his experience with COVID over the off-season.
A heavyweight Cronulla Shark who was floored by COVID for almost a month is happy to become rugby league’s vaccination poster boy.
As NRL players continue to quietly go down with the virus during the opening rounds of the season, Braden Hamlin-Uele revealed how COVID wiped him out for nearly a month over the Christmas break, and required him to consult a heart specialist as he struggled to breathe.
Cronulla prop Braden Hamlin-Uele opens up about his horror COVID experience.Getty Images
Several league players, including Canberra’s Josh Papalii and Melbourne’s Nelson Asofa-Solomona, have so far declined the vaccine and are playing under a Federal government medical exemption, which is only valid for four months and due to expire by May.
Hamlin-Uele was double-vaccinated when he was floored by COVID on December 23, and did not return to Cronulla training until the end of January because of the constant muscle pain and tiredness.
Thankfully, the 27-year-old made a full recovery and will lead the Sharks pack at home against Parramatta on Saturday evening. Craig Fitzgibbon will also be at PointsBet Stadium after he made his NRL head coaching debut against Canberra last weekend from
his lounge room because he too had contracted COVID .
“I couldn’t breathe properly, and my heart rate was well over 90 beats per minute when I was doing nothing,” Hamlin-Uele told the
Herald.
“I tested positive on December 23. I either got it at [nightclubs] Northies, The Vinyl Room, or from the boys here.
Cronulla head coach Craig Fitzgibbon missed his first game in charge due to a COVID close contact.NRL Photos
“My brother [Caleb] and his fiancee [Michele] live with me, so I had to isolate in my own room while they enjoyed Christmas breakfast in the dining room while FaceTiming my parents and sister back home in New Zealand. It was pretty shit.
“I was just really tired and had the aches and pains. Even when I came out of isolation, I’d go for a walk and wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“I ended up going to hospital over on the north shore for respiratory testing, then later went to another clinic in Sutherland. They found no blockages.
“I was never one to say, ‘COVID is just like the flu’. It’s definitely not. It might not affect you, but it will affect someone else worse. I’ve never had any issues with colds in the past. But I was rocked by this one.”
Hamlin-Uele said he did not want to judge those NRL players who had baulked at getting the jab, but he wondered how much worse he could have been had he not been double vaccinated.
“[If they’re not vaccinated], that’s on them,” Hamlin-Uele said. “People can be anti-government, but don’t be anti-medicine or anti-science - those people are there to help you, they’re not against you.”
Stories of COVID reactions have varied in the NRL with St George Illawarra skipper Ben Hunt feeling like he could start training within days while South Sydney’s Damien Cook struggled on “day 10” after just 15 minutes on an exercise bike.
Hamlin-Uele is without a deal beyond this season but would love to remain in the Shire, and the 113kg Kiwi knows he is entering his prime years as a front-rower. He has enjoyed his time working under Fitzgibbon, who has encouraged him to “hit and stick” in defence rather than “hitting and seeing what happens”.
7news.com.au
