Portsmouth defender James Bolton's 'lab rat' fears after shockingly testing positive for coronavirus TWICE

The Pompey defender has revealed how he was thrown into the centre of a medical storm, after fearing he’d been reinfected with Covid-19.

Bolton was one of the four Blues players who tested positive back in March, as football was suspended and the pandemic gripped the globe.

But after being given the all clear, the 26-year-old then later tested positive once more as one of two unnamed players in June.

With research at that time pointing towards it being impossible to be reinfected it was a shock result, as Pompey followed EFL and NHS guidelines.

Bolton explained how a nerve-wracking period ensued before more tests later returned negative results.

He said: ‘It was a bit of a strange one, to say the least.

‘The first positive was March and then I’d been having negative tests in between that.

‘Then a couple of months later it happened again.

‘I’d tested positive twice, but the same day when I got the results I felt absolutely fine.

‘When I had it before I kind of knew something was wrong, so I went to get an NHS test and that came back negative - and so did my girlfriend’s.

‘You would have thought if there was something was wrong one of them would’ve come back positive if there was anything about.

‘I’ve seen things like there could still be traces and there are things being said which aren’t 100 per cent reliable, I don’t know

‘I knew it was very rare to get it twice, if that was the case, because I had people ringing me and doctors ringing asking to do tests.

‘It was a crazy one and I was telling them “I don’t know if I’ve got it again 100 per cent”.

‘It looked like it was going to be a big thing at the time, so I’m glad it didn’t come out. Bob (Pompey’s physio) and the club doctor were astounded.

‘I had University of Portsmouth trying to come and do tests. I felt like I was going to be a lab rat!

‘So I was definitely pleased the tests came back negative afterwards.

‘It was a big, crazy chain of events.’

Bolton also found himself at the centre of the coronavirus narrative in football in March, and a seismic sequence of events which would bring the game on these shorts to a standstill.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was one of the first figures in the English game to test positive for Covid-19, after his side had played Pompey in the FA Cup.

That led to Bolton being one of the early players to do likewise, sparking fears for his well-being as the disease spread.

He added: ‘It was rare and we were one of the first ones to test positive in the public eye.

‘I think a lot of the world have probably had it and not been tested.

‘I remember when the Accrington game got called off and we had some time off.

‘We hadn’t had the results of the tests back and I was on about going home to see the family, but I thought it probably wasn’t right just in case - looking back that was a good thing, because I would have definitely passed it on.

‘We were tucked away in a little bubble and I’m glad we did that.’

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