Saints' new Aussie ace stuck in Italian Covid hell for nearly three weeks

The 28-year-old Australian forward arrived in England to start pre-season training in November and, after being reunited with his girlfriend just before Christmas, the pair went on a romantic trip to Rome.

The dream holiday turned into a nightmare when the former Wests Tigers and Manly second rower tested positive for Covid-19 and, after being separated from his girlfriend, spent the next 17 days locked in his room.

"It was like a bad dream," Sironen said at Saints' pre-season media day. "We only went for three nights and on the way home on Boxing Day I had to do a pre-flight test at the airport which proved positive.

"They shipped me in a car straight to the quarantine hotel. I was in there 10 days, separated from my partner who managed to get the flight to Liverpool, and after that I was still positive, so it ended up being a bit longer.

"I was shocked because I hadn't had any symptoms. It was a crappy couple of weeks, just a bad experience. I couldn't speak a word of the language.

"It was pretty grim. I was thankful that my parents back in Australia asked on Facebook if anyone knew anyone in Rome and they somehow found a friend of a friend, who was an absolute angel.

"She got in contact with me and brought me things like groceries and dropped me off some dumbbells and exercise stuff too. It was like Christmas Day. I was really lucky to have her, she kept me sane.

"I was facetiming a lot of people back home, did a bit of exercise to kill a couple of hours every day and there was lots of tv."

Sironen added: "I was a bit upset to be honest, frustrated more than anything, bad luck I reckon.

"Once I got my head around it, I tried to do as much training in that little room as I could.

"In another month or so I'll be able to laugh about it. I'm just grateful to be back home and healthy.

"My partner has another year at university and went back last week so it cut off half of our time together. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong.

"It was a pretty crappy start to the year but it's only up from here I reckon. There are people worse off than me.

"I'm back at it now, getting some strength back in the legs. It was a goal of mine to have a good pre-season and impress my new team-mates.

"It's a hiccup but it's a long year. I'll have a chance to show everyone what I'm about."

Saints' new recruit is no stranger to Europe, having spent a year in France as a youngster when his father Paul Sironen, a World Cup winner with Australia in 1988, had a playing stint with French club Villeneuve at the back end of his career.