WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has spoken out on the impact COVID-19 had on his body, after testing positive for the virus in December.

Reigns was forced to miss the Day 1 Premium Live Event on January 1, where he was scheduled to take on Brock Lesnar for his Universal Championship.

Speaking to the SI Media podcast, the 36-year-old went into detail about his positive case of COVID-19 and the effect it had on his body. Effects he is continuing to feel now.

"For me, obviously in comparison to some of the worst scenarios that are out there and that we’ve seen through the pandemic, it wasn’t bad. For me, it was mainly a pretty good sinus infection, a bronchitis cough, a lot of chest tightness.

“I still feel that actually. When I’m doing my conditioning because we don’t wrestle quite as much and we’re doing a lot of six-man [tag team matches], I don’t have singles matches as much as I used to, so I have to continue to really push the conditioning on my own and I’ve noticed in the past couple of weeks that when I really blow myself up on the bike or running, or whatever I’m doing, I can feel that tightness and a little bit of wheezing.

“So, it’s definitely something serious. As someone who is vaccinated and boosted, it still got to me, and I still felt the effects. While they weren’t as severe as they can be for some, it did hang around and linger for a while.

“It took me, obviously, I missed Day 1 and I tested positive a week before that. We were just chasing that negative test and finally a few days before SmackDown the following week, I finally got that negative test and the wife let me back in. So, it was a good week that week.”

Since being allowed back on WWE TV following his negative test, Roman has been embroiled in a storyline that will see him battle former friend and stablemate Seth Rollins at the Royal Rumble this Saturday. It’s a match that has leaned on the rich history between the two men, having debuted together as part of The Shield in 2012.

Of course, third member of that famous debut was Dean Ambrose, now known as Jon Moxley in AEW. A name bought up by Rollins on this past week’s SmackDown, in what was a rare moment for WWE where they allowed a talent to make a direct reference to an AEW talent. And Reigns’ added he was glad that they could mention ‘Mox’ and the history the three of them have together.

“I never shy away from my history. Those two are my brothers. Mox sat there, I mean we’ve done, achieved, gone through the highs and lows, the ebbs and flows of it all. So that’ll never change anything, I’ll always have a deep love and respect for both of those guys.

“Mox was actually, I mean, he’ll probably actually tell you too, me and him were like, super tight. Within the Shield and maybe even a little bit closer. They may have been like, super bonded through wrestling and what they have done in FCW, and prior to WWE. But when it comes to just like, whether we were wrestlers or not, me and Mox, we’re friends you know what I mean? Like we’re the kind that can just hang out and have a beer. Well, I guess not anymore.”