Detectives are investigating allegations that a British player at the Wimbledon tennis tournament was poisoned, after she fell ill with a bacterial infection that can be spread through rat urine, London's Metropolitan Police said Thursday.

Gabriella Taylor was playing in the junior tournament when she became sick on July 6 and had to drop out.

Her mother, Milena Taylor, says the 18-year-old was hospitalized in intensive care and diagnosed with leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread by animals.

Britain's National Health Service says leptospirosis is uncommon in the U.K., with fewer than 40 cases a year reported.

It takes between five and 14 days, and in rare cases up to a month, before symptoms appear.

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