‘It has nothing to do with Covid or the Covid vaccine’
Sergio Aguero’s cardiologist has stated that a virus might have caused the heart problems that led to the striker retiring from football, but dismissed theories that it was Covid-related.
Roberto Peidro – who has treated the Argentine since 2004 – was keen to add that the 33-year-old will be able to live a ‘normal life’ despite being left with a tiny scar near his heart following a cardiac ablation.
Peidro began treating the former Manchester City striker 17 years ago when he suffered palpitations.
Speaking during radio interviews in Argentina, he said: “He has a very small scar in his heart area which is less than a millimetre which is why it sort of short-circuits and causes those arrhythmias.
“What was done using a catheter was to burn that area where the arrhythmias were coming out.
“We think it’s going to work very well and solve the problem but our advice is that he shouldn’t do high-performance sport that involves an important degree of mental and physical stress several hours a day.
“He can do sport and he’s going to have a normal life like any normal person. But footballers live a different type of life.”
The cardiologist – who said that he was speaking with Aguero’s permission – insisted that his heart problems have nothing to do with coronavirus, or that the vaccine was the cause of his issues.
Aguero tested positive for covid-19 in January, but Peidro rubbished rumours that it is related to that.
He added: “The most common scenario is that the small scar found is produced by a virus he’s suffered at some point in his life and wasn’t ever detected.
“I spoke with no-one before Sergio’s retirement announcement because this formed part of my duty of professional secrecy, but he allowed me to speak to the media and explain things.
“It was a shared decision for him to quit professional football.
“He was very anxious and when I saw the test results the first thing I said was: ‘If you were my son, I would advise you to go this way.”
It was revealed that Josep Brugada, the Barcelona-based cardiologist in charge of his treatment, also spoke to Aguero about his situation.
Peidro revealed that while the forward could ‘probably’ have continued to play, they couldn’t be sure that the arrhythmias would not occur again.
“We thought it best he stop playing professional football and it’s probably the wisest decision.
“He could probably carry on playing and the arrhythmias might never occur again, but we can’t be sure.
“In the face of the slightest doubt we said we would rest easier if he quit and he saw it like that as well.”
Aguero’s heart problem was detected after he was substituted with chest pains in his last Barcelona match on October 30 against Alaves, with the forward later taken to hospital.
He announced his retirement on Wednesday at an emotional press conference at the Nou Camp, having made just five appearances for the Catalan giants since his move from City in the summer.
When it was reported that Aguero was expected to announce his retirement from the game, some people began to speculate on social media that his heart problems were covid-related. This also occurred when Charlie Wyke recently collapsed, but pundits were quickly criticised by scientists for linking player collapses to vaccines.
The criticism was justified as the Wigan Athletic striker confirmed his collapse was ‘not vaccine related’.
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