Wout van Aert to "do some medical tests when he feels fit again" after Covid-19 infection

The Jumbo-Visma leader had been on a brilliant classics campaign with wins at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and E3 Saxo Bank Classic, but has his sprint turnt on it's head as he tested positive for Covid-19 in the days leading up to the Tour des Flandres. He eyes a return at Paris-Roubaix, but there are calls for safety.

Jumbo-Visma have said to Het Nieuwsblad what the plan is for the coming days for the Belgian champion: "The first step in the process is to wait until Wout is no longer sick. We can't say how many days that will take. We'll do some medical tests when he feels fit again. If those are good then comes the final step – we'll see if it makes sense, performance-wise, to race."

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After feeling ill the days before the Tour des Flandres, van Aert missed the recon ride alongside the team. Days later, he tested positive for Covid-19 and had to miss the race altogether, where Christophe Laporte finished ninth and Tiesj Benoot thirteenth.

One of the Belgian federation's medical doctors Tom Tueglinkx have said that the return to the peloton is a sensitive subject for van Aert, and that a possible participation in Paris-Roubaix may be a risk: "We still know far from everything about the consequences of a COVID-19 infection. Our guideline is that after an infection you stay on the sidelines for at least seven, preferably 10, days. That's the general rule, but the final decision lies with the team doctor. One advantage is that Wout only had mild symptoms.

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"Take time to recover, screen how the first training goes, build up slowly, and only then resume competition. How long will that take? You have to look at each case individually. Dylan Teuns, for example, raced after a week, but felt a strange reaction in the lungs, so decided to take four further days off," he added.