Two of Britain’s brightest young tennis prospects fear their careers could be over because of the ongoing effects of long Covid.
Maia Lumsden, 24, will make a tentative return to competitive tennis next week 18 months after first testing positive for coronavirus, but that is a distant dream at the moment for Tanysha Dissanayake.
The 20-year-old, who was taking her first steps on the professional circuit prior to contracting Covid-19 last July, is barely able to do anything nine months on.
Dissanayake experienced moderate symptoms after testing positive, including struggling to walk any distance without feeling breathless, and told the PA news agency: “It’s basically been downhill ever since.
“For most of this year I’ve been completely bedbound. Just to speak to you today, I didn’t do anything the whole of the morning, didn’t do much yesterday. One of my friends came over the other day. I had to rest for five days after that.”
One thing that has kept the Surrey player going has been talking to Lumsden, who had a mild case of coronavirus in October 2020 before becoming very unwell several weeks later.
There was no timeline on when things would get better.
“I was totally bedbound for a number of months,” the Scot said. “The first six months were tough. I had a lot of tests done and everything was fine but they just didn’t know a lot about it.
“There wasn’t any treatment or any medication that I could take. That was the really hard part, just not knowing what was going on and how badly it was affecting my body.
“As the months went on I was obviously desperate to try to get back to tennis so every now and then I would try to start, but it would make me more ill, basically I’d crash and I’d be back bedbound. There was no timeline on when things would get better.”
Lumsden, who reached a career-high ranking of 250 in October 2019, finally made it back onto court a year after testing positive, beginning with 15-minute sessions.
Another bout of Covid in December set her back but thankfully did not have the same long-term effects and next week she will play in the UK Pro League tournament in Warwick.
“I’m not quite ready to compete in professional events but I’m going to try and test it out, see if I can handle it,” she said. “I am really excited because it’s been so long but still a bit hesitant because I know I won’t be 100 per cent. I’m hoping I can manage the remaining symptoms that I have.”
While most young, healthy people recover quickly from the virus, Lumsden joined a Facebook page for endurance athletes suffering from long Covid and discovered she and Dissanayake are certainly not alone.
Five days is nothing when, if you give someone Covid, they might have to lose two years of their life.
Lumsden has found not everyone has been understanding of her struggles, though, saying: “A lot of people, especially my age or athletes, they don’t even really know about long Covid.
“That’s one of the tough things, a lot of people don’t understand what I’ve gone through. Even people I know have said to me, ‘Are you sure it’s not in your head’?”
Dissanayake is keen to raise awareness of the condition and, with restrictions now lifted in England despite continuing high rates of Covid, would urge people to think about the potential consequences of spreading the virus.
“Now people are almost forgetting about it, especially with other things going on in the world,” she said. “Which I understand, because we’re over two years into it now. If I didn’t have long Covid, maybe I would be the same.
“But, knowing how unwell a previously fit and healthy person is now, it annoys me a little bit because it doesn’t take much to wash your hands or wear a face-mask. Even the five-day isolation. Five days is nothing when, if you give someone Covid, they might have to lose two years of their life.”
Lumsden is trying to stay hopeful in terms of her tennis aspirations but it is hope rather than expectation.
She said: “I’ve said to myself that I want to at least try. During the past year I did think that my career probably was going to be over and I would have to stop just because of the way I was and not knowing the timeline of when I would be better.
“I was starting to try to accept that but then I was managing to get back on the court and I do love playing.
If someone said, you can never play tennis again but at least you'll have your life back, right now I'd take it. Because this isn't really living.
“I do hope as the months go on I can get closer but I also realise you can’t wait forever. It’s been a year and a half now. If my body can’t handle it then I would have to move on.”
Dissanayake shares the same hope, but getting back to some kind of normal life is the first and most important priority.
She said: “I want nothing more than to play tennis again. I love the sport, I love everything about it. I miss competing so much.
“But, at the same time, it’s been so long that I’ve been unwell that it kind of puts doubts in my mind whether I’ll even be fit enough to play again because, other than Maia, I’ve spoken to other long Covid people and they’re two years down the line and they’re still only 80 per cent better, they have good days and bad days.
“And, to play a sport professionally, you can’t have good days and bad days like that. Especially if I’m not sure if it’s going to have an impact on my future health-wise.
“So, I would love to play tennis again, but honestly I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to. If someone said, you can never play tennis again but at least you’ll have your life back, right now I’d take it. Because this isn’t really living.”
