Former English Premier League and Russian international striker Pavel Pogrebnyak has been hospitalized with bilateral pneumonia after falling ill with coronavirus over the weekend, his wife has confirmed.
The 36-year-old, who currently plays for Russian Premier League club FC Ural Yekaterinburg and previously had spells in England with Fulham and Reading, fell ill with the virus on Friday.
Also on rt.com 'It was terrifying': Wife of former Russia international Pogrebnyak speaks of fears as striker & family catch coronavirus"My husband is still in hospital. He has a high temperature and a cough which quickly grew into bilateral pneumonia," his wife, the style guru and reality TV star Maria, said on Instagram.
On Saturday Maria told her almost 2 million followers that her husband had developed pneumonia and her family had suffered fever and sickness.
"We had the results almost immediately. Pneumonia develops very quickly. My husband's temperature started to rise...he had bilateral pneumonia," she said.
Pogrebnyak became the quickest player to score five goals in Premier League history during his time at London club Fulham, before moving on to spend three seasons with Reading.
A Moscow native, Pogrebnyak played for capital clubs Spartak and Dynamo, as well as Zenit St Petersburg, and also had a successful tenure in Germany with Stuttgart. He racked up 33 appearances for Russia during a six-year international career.