TWO-TIME Olympian Aaron Royle hopes any potential COVID-19 side effects, especially fatigue, won't impact his sporting career either this season or beyond.
Newcastle-bred Royle and his partner, fellow triathlete Non Standford, are undergoing a period of self isolation after testing positive for coronavirus.
They are currently based in the UK city of Leeds.
"I'll just see how I recover from this in terms of races going forward," Royle, who turns 32 this month, told the Newcastle Herald.
Royle was set to depart this weekend for a training camp in Spain, but those plans may now be delayed.
"Technically I can leave on Sunday provided I have a negative test on Saturday, but that might get pushed back a bit," he said.
In terms of upcoming triathlon events for 2022, first on the agenda sees Royle and Standford combining forces in the lucrative Couples Championship in Florida in March. The winner of the inaugural race scores $100,000 in prizemoney.
"Hopefully we'll still do that, but it just depends if there are any long-term effects or some form of fatigue that carries on from this," he said.
Royle felt like the initial days with COVID-19 were "pretty rough".
"It's not too bad the symptoms. Just the general symptoms - a bit of fever, a bit blocked up and quite fatigued," he said.
"So the first couple of nights were pretty rough, but this is the third day now and it finally seems like I'm starting to feel a little bit on the mend."
Royle reckons it was "probably just a matter of time" before the pair, who regularly travel to international destinations for races, would contract COVID-19.
"To be honest, it was probably just a matter of time especially with the amount of travel and public places doing what we do. Although it sucks, it's probably not the worst timing and hopefully we're now immune for quite some time," he said.
The World Triathlon Championship series starts in Japan in May. Triathlon is again part of the Commonwealth Games, which takes place in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8.
