Frank Martin still remembers the night before the world essentially shut down.

He was in Nashville at the SEC Tournament watching the Arkansas-Vanderbilt game, scouting the two teams the Gamecocks could play in the next round as uncertainty about the future of the tournament swirled because of Coronavirus.

He returned back to the team hotel and woke up to tournament canceled and the sports world at a standstill.

“I went to my hotel room and everything I can think of is, ‘Man, I don’t know if I want to play this game,’” Martin said. “I say it all the time, but if you tell me I got to walk through a door and there’s a grizzly bear on the other side, I’m going to take a deep breath and I’m going to take on a grizzly bear. If you tell me I’m going to walk through that door and I have no idea what I’m going to fight on the other side, I ain’t walking through those doors in a comfortable way.”

The unknown for Martin became a known for him roughly two months later as Martin tested positive for COVID-19 right before a scheduled knee replacement surgery.

He was diagnosed at the beginning of May, self-quarantined and has since tested negative for it twice. He also had successful knee replacement surgery Thursday.

“My spirits are back up. God helped me and guided me and kept my family negative and allowed me to get to this place without any crazy symptoms,” Martin said. “Psychologically it’s a burden, and it’s an uncomfortable burden. I feel good right now, other than the nerves. Emotionally I’m trying to figure out what’s going on in society right now. Personally, my spirits are good again.”

But, even though his bout with Coronavirus wasn’t as tumultuous as some others’—he was largely asymptomatic and didn’t require hospitalization—it did make him a little hesitant about when he’d bring his players back to start summer workouts.

The SEC ruled players are allowed to resume voluntary, on-campus workouts starting Monday and while Gamecock football will begin summer workouts this week, Martin is going to wait until the end of the month to bring players back.

“I’m excited to see how the football thing takes place, but we’ll wait until July to figure out how we’re going to handle this,” he said. “My initial reaction was, ‘I can’t wait,’ but when I found out I stepped back and said, ‘What am I going to tell a parent if their child comes here and gets infected and god forbid they come home for august and infect their family?’ I don’t know what I’d do. Like everything in my life, I’d rather be safe than have to be safe than call and say I’m sorry.”

Men’s basketball players will begin reporting back June 29 to begin COVID testing in preparations for the start of July workouts.

Because Martin’s dealt with Coronavirus on a personal level, it’s why he’s holding back and letting football work through some of the challenges that will come with bringing players back and adjust accordingly.

“Those concerns are still there for me,” he said. “That’s why we didn’t bring our players back now like football’s coming back now. It was available for our players to come back now. I’d rather wait. Football? God bless them. They’ve jumped into this both feet in. players are excited, coaches are excited.”