Fiorentina director of sport Daniele Prade has spoken about the horror of his fight with coronavirus, revealing his infection led to the hospitalisation of some of his family.

The club, along with many in Serie A, has been hit by Covid-19, with on-loan Wolves striker Patrick Cutrone, German Pezzella and Dusan Vlahovic – all testing positive in March, and three more first-team players plus three other staff also returning positive tests last week on reporting for the resumption of individual training.

It has penetrated the boardroom too, with Prade, 53, describing his harrowing experience with the ‘b*d’ disease, and his fear upon seeing his sick in-laws taken by ambulance to Italy’s national infectious diseases hospital in Rome.

‘I experienced Covid-19 first-hand,’ he told Sky Sports Italia. ‘In fact, nine members of my family got ill and I brought the virus into my home. It hit my wife, my daughter, my in-laws and nephews.

‘The worst of it was for my in-laws, who I was genuinely frightened for. They were in hospital for 30 days, fortunately they were at the Spallanzani, one of the best clinics in the world for this virus.

‘This virus is sneaky, it’s a b*d. You can’t even get out of bed, you have a high fever, sweat, cough, diarrhoea. And it becomes genuinely scary when you see those around you getting ill too and even an ambulance coming to take away your in-laws.

‘Fortunately, we all recovered and I will always be a spokesman for the measures we must take to prevent the spread of coronavirus.’