Stade de Reims doctor Bernard Gonzalez commits suicide after contracting COVID-19

Stade de Reims doctor Bernard Gonzalez commits suicide after contracting COVID-19
# 06 April 2020 02:29 (UTC +04:00)

Le Parisien report that 60-year-old Ligue 1 club Stade de Reims’ doctor Bernard Gonzalez has taken his own life after contracting COVID-19, APA reports citing AFP.

Members of the club discovered today that Gonzalez, who was the chief doctor for the 1st team, had committed suicide.

After contracting COVID-19, Gonzalez was in quarantine with his wife, who had also been contaminated with the disease. He left a letter explaining his decision to commit suicide.

Arnaud Robinet, mayor of Reims, is stunned by the news: “I have strong thoughts for his parents, his wife, his family. He is a collateral victim of COVID-19… I know that he has left a note to explain his decision, but I will ignore the contents of it. He was an engaged and very loving man.”

An individual inside the club has told the outlet that he was not even aware that Gonzalez had contracted COVID-19: “I spoke to him last week and he never brought it up. It is incomprehensible. What a tragedy. I am now going to have to let the players and staff know. It is going to be a terrible shock.”

Speaking on the club’s official website, Stade de Reims President Jean-Pierre Caillot sought to pay homage to Gonzalez:

“Words fail me, I am stunned by this news. This pandemic attacks Stade de Reims in the heart, he is a character who personifies Reims and a great professional of the sport who has left us. His mission at the club of more than 20 years had been carried out with the utmost professionalism, in a passionate and even selfless manner. Doctor Gonzalez, in the harshest periods for the club, worked on a voluntary basis (without payment). He is my personal doctor, and today all my thoughts, those of the club where he will remain a strong figure, go to his wife and his parents.”

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