NBA docs worried about lingering effects of COVID-19

"There are unknown effects it has on lung capacity, unknown effects it has on
cardiac health," one general manager of a team entering the NBA bubble told
ESPN on the condition of anonymity.

"What if a 24-year-old catches it in Orlando and, in 14 days, he quarantines
and is fine, but then he has these everlasting heart problems? (Or he) gets
winded so easily, or he becomes a little bit too susceptible to fatigue? ...
These are all the unknowns."

The NBA is preparing to restart the season, with 22 teams reporting this week
to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando for training camp. Games
are scheduled to resume on July 30.

Any player who tests positive faces a two-week quarantine period before he can
be cleared to return to the court. A physician will determine when the
isolation period is over, a process that will include a cardiac screening.

Matthew Martinez, a consulting cardiologist for the NBA Players Association,
stressed to ESPN that players will need time to rest after a positive test
because doctors believe "the amount of cardiac damage can increase if you
continue to exercise in the face of an active infection."

The effects of COVID-19 on cardiac health, including myocarditis (inflammation
of the heart muscle), are "not yet fully understood," the league wrote in a
memo sent to teams on June 15, per ESPN.

According to the American College of Cardiology's Sports and Exercise
Cardiology Council, "Acute cardiac injury ... occur(s) in up to 22 percent of
hospitalized patients with COVID-19, which is significantly higher compared
with the approximately 1 percent prevalence in non-COVID-19 acute viral
infections."

Myocarditis "could result in cardiac dysfunction, arrhythmias, and death," the
council said.

John DiFiori, the NBA's director of sports medicine, told ESPN he would urge
any player who is diagnosed with the coronavirus to follow a physician's
advice for managing the illness.

"If you don't feel well, don't try to push through this," Fiori said. "This is
not a situation where anyone, whether you're an athlete or not, should try to
push through or minimize symptoms or try to ignore symptoms and try to push
through to try to continue to work or continue to play a sport."

--Field Level Media