Ex-Fulham striker Pavel Pogrebnyak hospitalised with Pneumonia after contracting Coronavirus; his wife and three sons are also down with disease

Former Fulham and Russian striker, Pavel Pogrebnyak who currently plays for FC Ural Yekaterinburg has contracted Coronavirus. His wife and their three young sons have also been infected with the virus.

His wife, Maria Pogrebnyak-Shatalova, 31, said the 36-year-old player was hospitalised with ‘bilateral pneumonia’ after his current club Ural Yekaterinburg confirmed he had been diagnosed with Covid-19.

The lifestyle and fashion guru also confirmed that she and their three sons Artyom, 13, Pavel junior, 11, and Alexey, eight, have all been diagnosed with Covid-19 after the footballer.

‘My husband is in hospital, he is receiving treatment,’ she said.

She suspects he became infected on a plane en route to his club’s training camp after Russian players restarted training.

His temperature soared, she said.

‘My husband went to team training in Yekaterinburg,’ she said. ‘He had no symptoms whatsoever, nothing was signalling trouble.

She also disclosed that she was the last of her family to be infected with the virus.

She said: ‘My sense of smell disappeared, I feel absolutely nothing. It feels awful! Fatigue! ‘I started having pain in my throat, it is impossible to eat, even to have a sip of water.’

Pogrebnyak played 12 times for Fulham scoring six goals in the 2011-12 season, before switching to Reading, where he made 103 appearances scoring 26 goals between 2012-15.