Six days into Minnesota Wild training camp, head coach Dean Evason was asked to give a progress report on rookie center Marco Rossi.
"They tell me he's unavailable," Evason said. "[So] he's unavailable for me."
Evason was asked about his interactions with Rossi, the No. 9 pick in the 2020 NHL draft.
"I have not met him yet," he said.
What about the notion that Rossi, 19, could find a regular spot in the Minnesota lineup this season?
"I honestly have no idea."
The mysterious answers were later clarified by the Wild, who said Rossi was unavailable due to an "upper-body injury." From a certain point of view, that was true: COVID-19 does primarily affect the upper body.
Rossi had to leave Wild camp due to complications from COVID-19, for which he had tested positive last November. Later in the month, the team confirmed that Rossi had traveled back to his native Austria to rest up, and that "there is no timetable for his return" to Minnesota.
"Like many, I was originally shocked and very disappointed, yet at this time I am very optimistic that my health is, and will be, good to return to train/play. One thing I know is that I come back stronger than ever!" Rossi wrote enthusiastically on social media this week.
His agent Serge Payer indicated that "very disappointed" might have sold Rossi's frustration short.
"It's never a good time for this, but you talk about a slap in the face ..." Payer told ESPN on Sunday. "Our conversations now are good. Much better now than they were three weeks ago when the news came out. But he's had some good test results [since then]."
Rossi's ordeal began last October, when he was drafted by the Wild. They loaned him to the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League, where he played one game before that league began postponing games due to COVID-19 diagnoses. Rossi himself tested positive in November. His primary symptoms were soreness in his back and fatigue.
In December, Rossi joined the Austrian U-20 national team for the IIHF world junior championship, held in Edmonton. He had an uncharacteristically quiet tournament, with zero points in four games. He averaged 18:20 per game in ice time.
When Rossi arrived at Wild camp, he could feel something wasn't right.
Most stories about NHL players contracting COVID-19 begin with a diagnosis and end with a return to the lineup. The conventional wisdom is that young athletes aren't significantly impacted by the virus, provided they don't have any underlying conditions.
Payer heard that theory too ... until his 19-year-old client was significantly impacted by the virus.
"He's monitored right now. We need to take a cautious approach here [due to COVID]," he said.
Payer and the Wild, who declined further comment for this story, aren't specifying what lingering effects Rossi was struggling through.
"Some of the frustration with media, which I totally understand, is because of the complexity of this COVID situation. Nobody -- from the Wild to the medical staff -- have really released anything publicly other than that brief statement, because of how complex this is," said the agent.
Payer indicated that Rossi has seen "multiple cardiologists" through the Wild, and that they also consulted with their own expert.
What concerned the player and his agent is what Payer calls "the COVID unknowns."
"Ultimately, there's maybe more to it than even researchers know about right now. We need to monitor it and be more careful than not. It's interesting that some don't even have any symptoms. Perhaps others need to take a much safer approach," he said.
Recoveries are commonplace for athletes Rossi's age, according to Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert based in Toronto.
"Without taking anything away from how terrible this infection is -- appreciating that it's killed a ton of people, it's overwhelmed health systems and it's brought the world to its knees -- truly the majority of people who get this will have a mild course of illness and fully recover. But because of so many people being infected, and how contagious it is, a lot of people by sheer numbers get really sick as well," said Bogoch, who has consulted the NHLPA on COVID protocols.
"Most people recover. But some people recover and are left with some lingering issues. You've heard different terms: 'Chronic COVID,' 'Long COVID.' There are a bunch of different terms," he said.
Bogoch puts people impacted by COVID into three categories:
People have had documented cases of COVID-19, have recovered in the sense that they're no longer contagious for the virus, but there's objective pathology. "Meaning you can do an X-Ray or an echocardiogram or blood work, and can find physiological harm that lingers," he said, adding that it can affect the heart and the pulmonary system, as well as the lungs and the respiratory system.
People who have had documented cases of COVID-19, have recovered in the sense that they're no longer contagious, and have chronic symptoms but no physiological issues that can be defined. "They're still symptomatic -- fatigue, malaise -- but you don't find any issues that are measurable."
People who don't have documented cases of COVID, and they're left with chronic manifestations, where it's not clear whether it's COVID or something else.
"All of them require care and should be taken seriously," said Bogoch, "but I think it's important that we distinguish between those three in order to understand how to move forward."
When it comes to Rossi, Bogoch wouldn't speculate on his recovery, except to say that researchers are seeing people with "lingering symptoms from COVID" eventually get better.
Rossi is resting in Austria with his family. Payer wouldn't confirm a report in The Athletic that Rossi's season is over, saying, "We're taking it day by day, week by week. We're certainly going on what the professional medical staff members are advising."
He will return to Minnesota in a few weeks for further testing. "The positive thing is that Marco should be fine and will return to play. But right now, he needs to rest. That's just the way it is," said Payer.
"He's a humble, grounded young man who always looks at facts. And the fact is that on the medical side right now, things are maybe looking more promising than before. He's very optimistic and excited about training in the future," he said.
As Bogoch noted, those with lingering symptoms have reason for optimism, provided that it's cautious optimism.
"I think it's fair to say that we need to be humble. We've only know this infection has existed for about a year. It's not fair to say we have all the answers, because we clearly don't," he said. "By and large, a lot of people that do have persistent symptoms tend to get better and better with time. But some don't."