Understandably Chris Henry wants to confine the stroke he suffered on the morning of the South Africa game last November, and subsequent heart surgery, to the past. But that's impossible considering the Ulster flanker made such a remarkable recovery to earn his 17th cap in Cardiff last weekend.
Henry told us yesterday one in four people have a hole in their heart, but the only cases that come to mind involve rugby players. Simon Best didn't have a hole in his heart, but the stroke he suffered at the 2007 World Cup, which lasted nine hours, ended his career.
Richardt Strauss had corrective surgery for a similar condition to Henry, which was only discovered after several concussions. It begs the question: are professional rugby players more susceptible to this because they push their body to its physical limit?
“NFL players get it quite a bit. They don’t really know. One in four people have a hole in the heart. Basically, because of the sport we play, there are more bumps and bruises, so this could have happened from a clot in the calf that went into heart. Instead of going through the lungs to be cleaned, it’s gone through the hole and up into the brain.
Unlucky
“To answer your question, yes, it could happen [to one in four people] but it doesn’t. They are the smallest percentages. We have been very unlucky, the fact that me and Richardt had it here, it is very bizarre . . .
“If I wasn’t a sports person, if I wasn’t in this environment, if it wasn’t the morning of a test – what a scary experience it was, but it would have been magnified so much more. I wouldn’t have had (Dr) Eanna Falvey in my room in four minutes. That is the bottom line. I was in the hospital within 45 minutes and they were doing the tests. I know I am very lucky in that regard.
“I heard a story of a girl in Belfast had a very similar thing when she was driving. She was terrified. She could have hit anyone. Her left arm dropped and she had a headache. She had to freewheel the car . . .
Intense
“ Her feeling didn’t come back for 24 hours. Simon Best’s didn’t come back for anything up to five days, I’m not exactly sure. For me, it was very short, intense, but short. Four minutes. And everything was back, my strength and my speech. It is amazing: I never thought I would be talking to anyone about these sorts of things, especially so young . . .
“As far as I’m concerned it’s in the past.”
Non te de. Not about you. This ancient Latin phrase neatly encapsulates the culture within the Ireland squad under Joe Schmidt's reign.
“Absolutely. That’s the culture and the philosophy we got here. Everyone obviously wants to shine, make the big carries, make the big plays, but if you don’t provide that quick ball for somebody else . . . that’s very much something we have talked about for the last number of seasons. Doing the small things. The coaches notice them.
“If you do something that makes somebody look good it is noticed . . .
“Considering the ball carrying of Jack (Conan) and Seánie (O’Brien), I already said to them I will try and do as much donkey work as I can.”
And be remembered for it.
