The story of Auba’s malaria battle and recovery

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has revealed the full effect that contracting malaria has had on him.

Our captain spent three days in hospital after the illness was diagnosed after he returned from meeting up with the Gabon squad - and while he says he is around “90 per cent” fit now, it was not always the case.

“To tell the truth I was feeling normal, a bit down [once I got back] but I thought it was down to the travel because going to Gabon is not so close to here,” Aubameyang said. 

“I felt just a bit tired, especially against Liverpool but I thought it was just because of the travel. I don’t know what the percentage of my [fitness] was at that moment because I didn’t know I had malaria, but definitely I felt a bit tired.

“[After it really hit] I was feeling very, very bad. I think this was my worst moment of being sick in my life because it was really hard - for three days in a row I had a fever all day and all night, non stop. 

“Even the paracetamol and stuff had no effect on this so after that I spoke to the doctor and said I needed to go to the hospital because I had travelled to Africa so maybe it was something like malaria. 

“I stayed in hospital for three days, I was really down and I think I lost 4kg, so it was a really bad moment and I think for my family it was a bit scary to see me like this. 

“After this I had some good treatment, the stuff did very well and the doctors as well and I am lucky I took it at the right moment because sometimes with malaria if you don’t treat it quickly, you can have big problems.”