Return to football after a COVID-19 infection

The football players diagnosed with COVID-19 were able to return their immune systems to baseline after the CDC-recommended isolation. This is in stark contrast to older adults with comorbidities, who are typically at greater risk for serious side effects and symptoms, and even death.

“When COVID-19 really started to spiral out of control, we met with Neil Johannsen, an exercise physiologist at LSU, and athletic trainers Derek Calvert and Jack Marucci, and discussed what we could do to ensure our athletes were healthy stayed. particularly wanted to ensure that athletes were not at risk of secondary infections when returning from isolation,” said Guillaume Spielmann, associate professor at the LSU School of Kinesiology.

Isolation effective after COVID infection

“When the idea for the study came up, we discussed why we wouldn’t turn something negative into something positive, and help the research find answers. If there are things we can do to better understand the virus, let’s do it,” said Jack Marucci. LSU’s director of athletic training. “The student-athletes were willing to be a part of it.”

During that time, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the CDC had recommended fourteen days of isolation.

“There was a lot of unknowns during this period. We’re looking at a population that is extremely close together during play and during games. We wanted to make sure that they are literally face to face with other players, that their salivary defenses, their oral defenses were virtually intact and that part of their immune system was not affected by the disease; that there were no long-term effects of the disease,” Spielmann said.

In 2020, saliva samples were collected from 29 student-athletes, before a COVID vaccine. Fourteen were COVID positive and 15 had no history of infection. Of the 14, only six reported mild symptoms of the virus, the remaining eight were asymptomatic throughout the isolation period.

“Salivary immunity is extremely important to ensure people don’t contract secondary infections, so when athletes return we need to ensure they are as healthy as possible. We found that the isolation period was sufficient to restore the athletes’ saliva. immunity to the levels seen in uninfected players,” Spielmann said.

Returning to play safely post-COVID

These findings suggested that the student-athletes could safely return to practice and play football without risk of secondary infection; that their immune systems were not at risk when practicing the close contact sport.

“I was a little concerned about long-haul flights and other more important outcomes, such as concerns about the development of myocarditis. Participating in elite-level athletic activities can be stressful on the body and you might want to arm yourself with the best scientific information to evaluate the possible outcomes “This data has helped validate some of these decisions that have been made. Providing a safe environment for your student-athletes is of the utmost importance and this has helped that process,” said Shelly Mullenix, LSU’s Senior Associate Athletics Director for Health & Wellness.

Three graduate students also participated in this study. Their research has now been published in Scientific reports.

“This kind of access is unique in Division I sports. Normally you don’t have access to football players, so the fact that we have access is also extremely important,” Spielmann said. “LSU is a great place for this field.”

“I think this COVID research is something we are very proud to be a part of and contribute to finding answers to such a devastating virus,” Marucci said.

Spielmann, an immunologist, studies the impact of stress on the immune systems of elite and tactical athletes, including astronauts and firefighters. But this study is not the first for Spielmann and LSU Athletics. They have worked together to study psychological and physiological health along with performance measures in other student-athletes and sports teams. A new study will take a closer look at female athletes’ mental, physiological and immune resilience to stress. This joint research led by Tiffany Stewart of Pennington Biomedical and Spielmann, funded by a grant from the Wu Tsai Foundation, will include participation from 50 LSU female athletes.

These groups also work together in the healthcare partnership with Our Lady of the Lake. Our Lady of the Lake has committed $170 million over the next decade to initiatives focused on academics and athletics. Dr. Catherine O’Neal, Chief Medical Office of Our Lady of the Lake, said this partnership will allow for greater collaboration and research between LSU and Our Lady of the Lake, as well as the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.