Coronavirus: “It's scary,” says basketball player Guerschon Yabusele, who left China

Called for the first time in the blue jersey to play the qualifying matches for Euro 2021, last Friday in Germany and this Monday against Montenegro, Guerschon Yabusele had planned to return to France for several weeks. But this return finally took place in an emergency and haste.

The 24-year-old interior, who plays this season in Nanjing, in the Chinese championship, was asked to leave his team earlier than expected due to the epidemic of coronavirus which has paralyzed the Middle Kingdom since January. The former Boston Celtics player in the NBA, drafted in 16th position in 2016, still does not know if he will be able to return to China.

What does this first call for the French team mean to you?

GUERSCHON YABUSELE. I am very happy to be there, to have been called. I have always said that it was a goal and a pride for me to wear this jersey. I am very happy to be part of this group.

Trained, our #TeamFranceBasket is now ready for the start towards the qualifications for EuroBasket 2021 👉https: //t.co/CK5dZXQf5J!

Appointment Friday at 8 p.m. for the first match against 🇩🇪 (📺 on Canal + Décalé)! pic.twitter.com/nmEg0oZMkO

Your return to France was a bit precipitated by the coronavirus epidemic in China…

Yes, I was very happy to be able to return to France and be safe. I took the opportunity to see my family ( Editor's note: who lives in Eure-et-Loir ) that I don't have the opportunity to see often during the seasons. I also trained in Paris with a coach whom I had brought from the United States to keep the condition.

How was the situation in China before you left?

I left the day before before everything got worse. With the truce of the championship (Editor's note: due to the Chinese New Year at the end of January) , I had taken a few days in Thailand and it was there that my club told me not to return. I left the next day in France. We don't know anything more. The leaders explained to us that the championship was going to be suspended (note: it has been ended since the end of January) or postponed, even today we do not know. The Chinese League must make decisions. We will know more in the coming weeks.

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We imagine that the atmosphere must have been special?

A little ... At first it was not serious, we heard much more about this virus abroad, my family talked about it more than in China. We didn't really have any info. After our last game before the break, we were told that we had to wear masks, we were starting to see people panicking at the airport. Thereafter, quarantine cases increased and more and more people were placed under surveillance. There was a bit of panic. I was a little in a hurry to return to France, even if we have seen since that the virus was also present here. It scares…

Really ?

Yes, because we have moved to a trivial, trivial situation, to another where we had to be careful. In the streets, everyone had to wear masks, there is really a lot of panic. Then the League was arrested and the number of infected victims increased every day. We are still waiting to see the evolution.

Do you know if you can return to your club?

No. We are awaiting the League's response. If the season ends, we're all free and looking for a club for the end of the season, otherwise we don't really know. We talk about the fact that the League can resume in April or May but we don't know more. My agents speak with certain teams in France, Europe or the NBA, but everything is still unclear. If the championship does not resume, it will just give me the opportunity to discover something else, to end the season elsewhere.