All Ireland Intermediate All-Ireland winner with Armagh in 2012, Marian McGuinness has revealed she's recovering from COVID-19.
The 34-year old says she contracted the virus at Cavan General Hospital where she works as a physiotherapist.
McGuinness says an in-patient who had originally tested negative for coronavirus, and was in for a separate, illness, was later readmitted and tested positive.
"I felt sick and insanely tired", she recounts of her initial symptoms.
McGuinness, added, " I came home from work and went to bed at 6.30 in the evening, which I’d never do.
"I was telling myself that it was just in my head, because of all the talk about it, and my temperature was normal.
"But I woke up on the Wednesday and felt really tired and really sore, as if I’d played an intense match.
"I was still hoping it was in my head and I tried to do some exercise, squats and press-ups, but I couldn’t do them.
"I thought that it would be best then that I didn’t go to work and I developed a temperature later that day, and a small cough three days later."
After being tested on Wednesday, McGuinness received the positive diagnosis on Friday.
McGuinness lives with two other physios in Cavan town, one of whom is also in isolation with the virus.
She had been due to be travelling to Texas on the TG4 All Star tour as a physio this week.
Instead, McGuinness is convalescing at home where she says she feels "quite good now", and "70-80 per cent better."
While she wants to return to action with her club Lacken as soon as possible, or even for a jog, McGuinness says she's not out of the woods, "I felt so bad again yesterday and I’m not totally clear yet.
"It’s not guaranteed that I’ll feel really good in the next five says but I’ve never so much looked forward to going back to work!"
When asked for the best advice she would offer in light of the current pandemic, McGuinness responds, "Don’t doubt yourself.
"Even my physio colleagues who have tested positive, we all doubted ourselves even when we were getting symptoms.
"It’s only that I had gone to bed early that evening and slept for 14 hours, and woke up feeling really bad….I had a responsibility to be sure.
"I was still 50-50 wanting to go to work but I thought no, don’t doubt yourself and if you think you have symptoms, take time off work, isolate, and see how you are in a few days.
"If I had gone in that day, I would have spread it to five or six more people, at least.
"There are other symptoms not talked about as much. Smell and taste are the big ones for me – I still have no smell or taste at all."
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