We have to accept the impact of COVID-19 on Australian sport

He was the first high-profile NFL player to contract COVID-19. He could only wonder how he caught the virus which had already begun to derail society as we knew it.

The then-New England Patriots quarterback feared the severity of the ramifications. Would the most watched sports league in the world shut down because of him?

The short answer? No.

The Patriots played three days later, flying to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs. Newton missed the game, but the world kept turning. Bill Belichick would turn to Brian Hoyer to start in Newton's place, and the game went on.

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So was Newton a villain? A man who single-handedly threatened the continuity of a season already gripped by the virus? No. He was still Newton, the man once voted the league's most valuable player, the fleet-footed playmaker with a trademark Superman celebration.

But closer to home, letting it be known you have contracted COVID-19 remains something of a taboo subject.

The Canberra Capitals should have been playing their first WNBL home game in almost two years on Sunday. Instead, the 649-day wait will become 656.

Because their scheduled clash against the Sydney Flames at the National Convention Centre was abandoned after someone within Capitals camp contracted COVID-19.

The official line from the Capitals is "a club person" is at the centre of the saga, refusing to reveal whether the person in question is a player or a staff member.

There is no desire to railroad a club into revealing who has the virus. That will likely become apparent soon enough, because when they next take to the court, someone will be missing.

But one can only wonder when COVID-19 will be effectively accepted in Australia's sporting landscape.

Already Australians have started to acknowledge COVID-zero is virtually impossible, that learning to live with the virus is going to become our way forward.

To compare the way the United States and Australian governments have handled the pandemic is a debate for another day. But following America's footsteps in a sporting sense should be an accepted practice.

If an athlete or team staff member contracts the virus, they are not to be seen as a pariah. The rest of the squad follows the appropriate protocols - in the Capitals' case, that means isolating for seven days and getting two tests.

One shouldn't trivialise the impact the virus can have on a person's health, or that of those around them, but there is no reason why it cannot be treated in the public eye as an injury or illness like any other.

Kelsey Griffin was going to miss Sunday's game with facial fractures sustained in the Capitals' season-opening win over the Flames in Sydney last weekend. Down the line someone is bound to miss a game due to COVID-19.

Why treat one normally, and one like they are trying to spread the plague? COVID-19 will continue to impact sport. Players will miss games because of it. Normalise it.

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