‘Pain is a perception you can control’... Andries using his own experience to support players who need help

IF anyone is well qualified to help players focus on life beyond rugby, it’s Andries Pretorius.

That’s the work he does on a daily basis in his role as chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Players Association.

But it’s also something he has very personal experience of, having had to hang up his boots at the age of 29.

He was at the peak of his physical powers at the time, a Welsh international who had just moved from Cardiff Blues to Worcester.

Yet within weeks of health problems first arising, his playing career was over.

The back rower was diagnosed with a rare condition called Issacs’ Syndrome and he still suffers with constant pain today.

It makes him all the more passionate about player well-being and the importance of players looking at life outside of rugby to prepare for the future.

Born and raised in South Africa, Pretorius qualified for Wales on residency during his time with the Blues and made his international debut on the 2013 tour of Japan, playing in both Tests.

But little more than a year later, he was forced to call it a day.

“I was training well, I was fit, strong and healthy and really getting into pre-season,” he recalls.

“But then I started to tear muscles randomly. I tore a calf muscle and then the other calf muscle, so they assumed it was something in my back.

“Then I tore a pec muscle, which didn’t quite fit the bill. Then I tore a bicep tendon, then a hamstring and then both calves again.

“We are talking all within the space of four weeks.

“Some of the tears happened just walking upstairs. I would cramp and the cramp wouldn’t let go for 25 minutes until the muscle eventually started to tear. “It was obviously quite concerning. “There was one time in particular when I realised the severity of it.

“I had tears in one calf and my pec and, as I was going up the stairs, the opposite leg cramped.

“As I reached out for the bannister, the pain from the torn pec stopped me from grabbing it and I landed on my back.

“I just lay there and thought ‘Okay, this is pretty serious.’

“I had to stop training there and then.

“Worcester provided superb medical support. There wasn’t a stone left unturned. “It took us a while to figure it out. “It wasn’t until I eventually saw a neurologist in Hereford that they found something in my blood and that’s how they diagnosed me with Issacs’ Syndrome.

“The initial symptoms started midway through pre-season in 2014 and I was diagnosed by the specialist come the November.

“I went from 115 kilos, nine per cent body fat and the fittest I’ve ever been to being told that’s you done, not only from rugby, but cycling, swimming, jogging, you’re finished.”

Tough to take indeed. So what exactly is Issacs’ Syndrome?

“The simplest way to explain it is this,” says Pretorius.

“You know when your eye twitches? Well, my body twitches 24/7. Every muscle group twitches.

“It’s an auto-immune disorder. My body is producing anti-bodies to fight off an infection that isn’t there.

“So all of those anti-bodies go and sit on the nerve endings and agitate the nerve and that causes it to twitch.

“With muscles continually moving and twitching, they never rest and never recover.

“So I would get fatigued like everybody else after a training session, but two days later my body still thinks it’s working and hasn’t gone into the recovery phase.”

Once diagnosed, Pretorius then went through a particularly gruelling period.

“I spent just over a month and a half in hospital where they trialled treatment,” he said.

“Then I was on medical treatment for a few months where the sideeffects were not pleasant at all. Mentally, they were really difficult.

“I went into Worcester one day to the library and walked out and had no recollection of where I was or why I was there.

“I couldn’t remember where I had parked my car.

“I would drive from Cardiff where we lived and I would have to pull over once or twice because I would get blurry vision.

“Trialling the drugs had no difference physically on the condition, but mentally it had such a negative impact that I decided that’s me done with those.”

There were some other especially challenging episodes in the early months.

“Initially, sleeping was really interesting,” he reveals.

“I would wake up because of the cramp. Then I would get used to the cramps and start to sleep through them.

“The problem then is it catches you in your REM sleep when you not fully asleep but not awake either.

“So I would dream that a hippo had got my leg and I’d be screaming and jumping out of bed and having night tremors.

“That was an interesting four or five months going through that and bless my poor partner, but now I sleep through it.”

So four years on, how would he characterise his health today? “Manageable,” he replies. “I have a lovely little two-year-old who keeps me on my toes.

“Sometimes that’s difficult because they want to be picked up, but you are cramping and have got some nerve pain. “You just have to bite it up. “Sometimes I have to rely very hard on my partner and be open with her to say I’m not being lazy, actually this is painful.

“The easiest way to describe what it’s like is toothache in my limbs, predominantly my lower body, although I twitch all over.

“Any muscle can cramp, my voice box for example. So sometimes my voice will drop a couple of octaves.

“It’s every muscle, every nerve. Right now, as we speak, I can feel some in my neck twitch, some in my eye, some in my bicep and I have just now felt my hamstring go.

“I am in constant pain, but in some ways you learn to manage it and be very pro-active in terms of self help. The advantage I have is a I understand the psychology of resilience and being self-aware.

“I can spot signs and symptoms way before most people would.

“The reality for me is I remember what it was like being on those drugs. I would much rather have the cramps.”

Considering the chronic pain he has to endure, the 32-year-old Pretorius is remarkably philosophical about his situation.

“The biggest change for me with managing the condition happened during those six to eight weeks in hos-