Former Aston Villa and Manchester United full back Young who has 39 caps for England is currently with Italian giants Inter Milan in northern Italy. The Italian football season has been suspended for almost a month now with Italy becoming the epicentre of the virus. In Italy there has been a devastating 7,503 deaths due to the virus, that’s over 4,000 more than China, where the virus originated. With 57,521 active cases Italy is under total lockdown. Young took to twitter yesterday in a thread of tweets to express his thoughts from within the country. He ordered people back in the UK to stop being greedy by stockpiling and over buying. “wait and be patient” he said.He warned that supermarkets are the main place for spreading the virus in Italy and explained ways in which Britons could and should act responsibly when shopping. He recommended using gloves and face masks at all times when in a supermarket. “treat everyone as if they have the virus” he said, warning people to keep their distance from other shop goers. “It’s not being horrible, its staying safe” he ended. From within the epicentre Young’s advice could be invaluable to the British public who are almost exactly two weeks behind Italy in the progression of the virus and his thread has already been shared by global celebrities such as James Corden.
Elsewhere in Italy, in Parma, rugby star Maxime Mbanda has been sharing his experiences of being a volunteer ambulance driver during the crisis on Instagram. The 27 -year-old flanker who plays for Pro 14 side Zebre in Parma posted a picture on Sunday holding an elderly persons hand in the back of his ambulance with the caption reading “SCARED” in Italian. The emotional and touching message underneath read “we are no longer white, black, yellow, Christians, Muslims, orthodox, gay, straight… we are all human beings”. Mbanda admitted in these unexperienced times it is natural to be afraid, but we would get through it by listening to the government.
Haydn Evans 