Freddie Freeman talks more about his illness

Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman has more details on his return from COVID-19

If you don't think COVID-19 is dangerous, just realize that a 30-year-old professional athlete had a horrible experience with the virus.

Freddie Freeman explained his two-week ordeal Saturday afternoon, and it was obvious that the COVID-19 virus had scared him.

Friday, July 3 is a day Freeman will likely never forget. The day before was when his symptoms started, with body aches – only 36 hours or so after he had tested negative during the intake process for getting back to the sport he loves so much.

Then, on that dreaded Friday, he woke up sweating. By 2:00 pm, “it hit me like a ton of bricks,” he explained. And then the fever started to spike, all the way up to 104.5.

“I said a little prayer that night,” Freeman admitted. “I’ve never been that hot before. My body was really, really hot. So, I said, ‘please don’t take me.’ I wasn’t ready. It got a little worrisome that night for me. I took some Nyquil, some Tylenol, and I was able to get to sleep. I was just scared to go to bed. I was scared if I spiked even higher when I was sleeping what would happen.”

It likely didn’t help that by Friday night he got the results back that he did, in fact, have the coronavirus. Freeman’s weekend was not good, and it wasn’t until Monday the 6 when his fever broke.

Three days later, Freeman started feeling bad again. He dealt with fatigue, and let’s admit, likely a huge dose of worry. And it couldn’t have helped him that his teammates were getting ready for a season that suddenly he wasn’t sure he’d compete in or not.

Thankfully, Freeman got the word yesterday he had two straight negative results for the virus. He said Saturday was his ninth day without any symptoms.

And now, his goal is to be ready for the start of this new, shortened season this Friday.

Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. ET on Middle Georgia’s ESPN. You can listen online at TheSuperStations.com. Follow Bill on Twitter at @billshanks and you can email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.