Phillies infielder Scott Kingery is a coronavirus surviver. Fortunately, the player is now fully recovered and he shared his experience with NBC Sports Philadelphia from his home in Phoenix.
Kingery, 26, wants people to know that he is completely symptom-free and that he is preparing for a season with his Phillies teammates. But the third thing Kingery wants everyone from his teammates to fans to know is that this virus is real.
“It really does spring on you fast,” he said. “Even if you don’t think you’re in a position to be exposed. It comes on very fast. It can creep up on you and get you pretty bad like it did with me.”
“I know five or six people who had it and every single person was affected differently. Some had a sore throat, really bad. I never had a sore throat. Some were asymptomatic the whole way. I was not.”
“It started on a Thursday (June 11) when I came down with a headache, I tried to play it off but it didn’t go away,” said the infielder. “Saturday around 10 a.m., I got chills so bad I couldn’t move without my whole body shaking. That night, my fever spiked so high that I sweated through my sheets. It left an imprint of my body.”
Kingery went on telling his experience.”My fever broke Sunday morning and I actually felt a little better. But then three or four days later, I lost my sense of taste and smell for a few days. That was really annoying. For a week, I was so tired. Low energy. Fatigue. Then I experienced shortness of breath for a week. I felt like I laid on the couch for three weeks without moving. I was tired just going up the stairs.”
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Kingery has begun to ease back into physical activity. He is doing some hitting. He believes he can be baseball-ready to play in the Phillies’ season opener July 24.
But he is not sure he will have been cleared by then by MLB and the Phillies. Once he gets to Philadelphia, he will have to go through intake protocols and more testing. He said that because he had a difficult illness, the team would likely want him to go through some extra testing, just to make sure his heart and lungs are good.
Kingery said he has spoken to only a few of his teammates. He wants to be with them and he wants them all to stay healthy.
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