England all-rounder Chris Woakes has downplayed the idea that England players might have contracted Covid-19 on their recent tour to South Africa.

England’s tour began with over half of the playing squad suffering from a bug at one point or another, leading to the call-ups of Somerset pair Dom Bess and Craig Overton as additional cover.

While the illness did afflict a significant proportion of the squad, Woakes was reluctant to speculate over whether or not the England players actually suffered from coronavirus.

Responding to a question during a virtual press conference on whether he felt that the illness that infected the squad was in fact coronavirus, Woakes said: “You do look back on it and kind of wonder I suppose. Obviously, we have no idea whether it was or it wasn’t. But my symptoms during that time – I was stuck in that room for nearly a week – were more gastro…Unfortunately, and I don’t want to say, it was diarrhoea basically. That was the main symptom I was feeling but there were flu-type symptoms in there as well.

“Listening to the other guys, their symptoms were relatively similar. So who knows? Potentially. At the same time it would be wrong for us to sit here and say we definitely had it because the symptoms being suggested regarding coronavirus seem to be more with the cough. There are obviously fever-like symptoms as well so it’s a tricky one. But of course, it has crossed your mind.”

Realistically, it’s extremely unlikely that any of the England players contracted Covid-19. Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad became ill ahead of England’s first warm-up game on December 17th, a full two weeks before China first confirmed the presence of the disease. The first confirmed case of the disease in the UK wasn’t until January 31st, while the disease’s confirmed case in South Africa was on March 5th.