John Rep suffered a heart attack last Wednesday, says Wilfred Genee at Today Inside. The presenter spoke to Mark van den Heuvel – writer of the biography of the former Ajax football player – and was told that money must be raised for a pacemaker. It too Algemeen Dagblad writes about having a pacemaker installed.
“I just received a call from Mark van den Heuvel, who knows Johnny Rep very well,” Genee said in the broadcast. ‘He said that Johnny had a very serious heart attack last Wednesday and is currently in intensive care. In the short term he will have to get a pacemaker, but that costs 25,000 euros in Spain and 10,000 euros in the Netherlands.’
In addition, it is currently anything but obvious for Rep to travel to the Netherlands by plane. ‘Now the insurance company does not want to pay for that and they want him to be flown back to the Netherlands, but they are afraid that he will not be able to survive that flight. They now have a serious problem there, because something has to be done in the short term.’
Valentijn Driessen also received the news and heard that former Rep teammates were trying to help him. ‘A number of his teammates are in Spain, including Arie Haan, Ruud Krol and Horst Blankenburg. They are working to raise that money. I reported it today (Monday, ed.) to the KNVB information officer. I said: then you will at least know about it. He would see if they could possibly work on that.’
Rep was shocked by Neeskens’ death
At the Algemeen Dagblad it is written that Rep is also shocked by the death of Johan Neeskens. ‘Rep (72), a year younger than Neeskens, also suffers from serious health problems. This week Rep gets a pacemaker. The device must ensure that the heart continues to beat in the correct rhythm. Rep has been struggling with cardiac arrhythmias for some time now.’
