After six months away from the field, Hassane Kolingar made his return to competition this Sunday during a Racing 92 match against Lyon. The pillar of Ciel et Blanc (26 years old, 3rd team), who had not played since the play-off match lost to UBB on June 16, explained in an interview with Rugbyrama the reasons for this long absence.
A few days after this play-off match, the player went to the wedding of his friend, Ibrahim Diallo, also a player at Racing 92. “Arrived there, I gave myself a 'snus' (flavored nicotine ball) against the gum and I sit waiting for the bride and groom. It's nothing illegal, right… There's no tobacco in it, but it's some real shit, I think. At the time, I just found it relaxed, that's all. Many athletes consume it. Lots of young people too…”
“The firefighters put me in a coma”
But while the marriage is in full swing, the young Parisian begins to feel pressure in his chest: “My heart is beating very hard. I sweat a lot. I see stars. I think I'm just having a hypoglycemic attack and, so as not to spoil the ceremony, I step aside. My eardrums are pounding, I feel like needles are being stuck in my head. (…) I hurt, really hurt, and my eyes roll back. I'm having a cardiac arrest. »
He then warns the people present at the wedding, who immediately call the firefighters and try to keep him awake. “They took my pulse: it rose to more than 240 beats per minute… It was a tachycardia attack, in short. And since my pulse wasn't going down, the firefighters put me into a coma. »
Hassane Kolingar was transported to Auxerre hospital then transferred to the cardiology department in a clinic in Plessis-Robinson. The rugby player then remained bedridden for ten days during which he was informed of his condition: “The heat, the absorption of “snus” and fatigue had dilated my old scar. (from a previous heart operation when he was a child) and then everything went to shit…”
“A first glimmer of hope in depression”
Several doctors then told him that he would have to “give up” on rugby and none wanted to operate on him. It was ultimately a surgeon from Bordeaux, Doctor Sacher, who took up the challenge: “It was a first glimmer of hope in the depression I was going through. » But the operation is not trivial because it consists of cleaning the original scar and requires “triggering a new cardiac arrest”.
“I was injected with a strong dose of adrenaline: RAS. So, I took 'snus' again under the advice of doctors. Around me, there were five of them with electric batteries to get me going again. It was quite a thing, I swear: on the operating table, I was praying to God that he would cause a cardiac arrest and that the operation could take place. It lasted five hours and I woke up. It was August 29, 2024 and I finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. »
In October, after more long examinations (“I was a textbook case, a laboratory rat”), he finally received the green light to resume rugby. “I was so happy…”
