{"id":115207,"date":"2021-08-12T10:31:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T10:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=115207"},"modified":"2021-08-12T11:57:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T11:57:37","slug":"brutal-mental-health-toll-of-reynolds-covid-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=115207","title":{"rendered":"Brutal mental health toll of Reynolds' COVID battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NRL star Josh Reynolds<\/a> has opened up on his recent battle with COVID-19<\/a>, revealing he's still struggling with both mental and physical issues following the diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Reynolds, who played 160 NRL games between the Bulldogs and Tigers, last month contracted coronavirus while in England playing for Super League club, Hull.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old moved to England earlier this year<\/a> after having spent the 2020 NRL season with the Tigers.<\/p>\n

The former NSW Blues star spoke to Nine's Danny Weidler about his COVID-19 battle, in which he admitted he was left shaken by the diagnosis and not knowing how it would affect him while living alone.<\/p>\n

"It was full-on, I'm not going to lie," Reynolds told Nine News.<\/p>\n

\"Hull<\/p>\n

"It's nerve-racking because you don't know how it's going to hit you.<\/p>\n

"I had pretty severe headaches, lost my taste and smell. I can't fully taste or smell at the moment.<\/p>\n

"The most freaky thing, because I live by myself, you're a bit nervous in case anything happens. It wasn't that I couldn't breathe, but I didn't feel normal."<\/p>\n

Asked about the mental health side of living through a pandemic, Reynolds said he can't take any more of it.<\/p>\n

"To be completely honest with you, I'm over it," he said. "I'm over the way we're living."<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

During his NRL career, Reynolds was most famous for his stint with the Canterbury Bulldogs, for who he played 138 games.<\/p>\n

Reynolds said the current COVID-19 outbreak impacting Sydney and the Canterbury-Bankstown area has been hard to watch from afar.<\/p>\n

"To everyone in that area, because a lot of my family are there and a lot of my best mates, I'm thinking of you guys," Reynolds said.<\/p>\n

"I know what it's done to this country [England]. I was over here when it got really bad and unfortunately, it's getting like that and especially in the Canterbury-Bankstown area.<\/p>\n

"Stay inside, it's only going to get worst. It spreads like rapid fire.<\/p>\n

"You see what it does to people, it's not COVID-19 itself, it's peoples' mental states.<\/p>\n

"When I first got over here and I was in that little room by myself and not having anyone to talk to, it's not a nice place to be."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact<\/em><\/strong> Lifeline<\/em><\/strong><\/a> on 13 11 14,<\/em><\/strong> Suicide Call Back Service<\/em><\/strong><\/a> 1300 659 467 or<\/em><\/strong> Kids Helpline<\/em><\/strong><\/a> on 1800 551 800.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former NRL star Josh Reynolds has opened up on his recent battle with COVID-19, revealing he's still struggling with both mental and physical issues following […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115209,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115207\/revisions\/115209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}