Ellen Keane has admitted that she will have to lower her expectations heading into next month's World Para Swimming Championships after contracting Covid-19.
Keane returned a positive test for the virus last Tuesday, with her diagnosis delaying her plans to take part in a training camp with her Irish team-mates in Fuerteventura ahead of the World Championships in Madeira, which get under way on 12 June.
"I think if I was to aim for gold it would be so unrealistic," the current Paralympic 100m breaststroke SB8 champion said.
"It is disappointing not knowing where I’m at and what I am capable of, but I’ve been around for so long that I’m going to be able to fall back into the routine of things ."
Keane, who was revealed as a sports ambassador for Dublin City Council today, added: "I’m just mostly trying to recover because there isn’t enough research done about the impact of Covid on athletes and the impact it could have on sporting performance.
"We do have a return to sport protocol, so as soon as I test negative I can start doing that.
"It’s a good thing that we have a camp as well because our physiologist will be away with us so she’ll be tracking my heart rate and making sure that I’m training at a low intensity, and making sure that my body and my heart and lungs can manage the training and then gradually increase it."
Thankfully, the 27-year-old former Dancing with the Stars contestant is not experiencing serious symptoms.
"I’m not too bad," Keane added. "I’m just really tired. I had a few of the symptoms early on. My body was aching and I had flu-like symptoms, but I’m OK. It’s just the timing of it is not ideal.
"But it’s the world that we live in at the moment, and I guess the only way to really avoid it is to not go outside, which isn’t realistic and isn’t something that you should be doing, even for your own mental health.
"It is what it is, and at least I didn’t catch it in Tokyo, that was my biggest fear. It’s just just one of those things I’ve just had to accept now.
"I was really disappointed, and I am really disappointed, but I'm kind of glad it happened now, rather than abroad, and then you’d be stuck in a hotel room. That’s the worst case scenario.
"I’ve done so well to avoid it for the past two years. Everyone was getting it on Dancing with the Stars, and I literally spent all day with my dance partner face-to-face while he had it, without us knowing he had it, and I still didn’t get it.
"I think I’m just meant to get it this time around. I’m just taking every day as it comes."
