Former rugby star in hospital after heart attack
Shockwaves rippled through the rugby landscape yesterday after it was learnt that legendary former Springbok lock Kobus Wiese had suffered a heart attack.
Wiese, 56, was apparently rushed to hospital on Tuesday to receive urgent medical attention.
A stent was inserted yesterday and the former Bok star was recuperating at the Panorama Clinic in Cape Town.
He is due to stay under medical care for the next 48 to 72 hours to monitor his condition.
Many people took to social media to wish the former Bok lock a speedy recovery, including close friend and former Pumas captain Chaka Willemse.
“Strongs Kobus, we are praying for a speedy recovery, you are a pillar [ yster],” said Willemse.
Wiese, who played 18 Tests – and 128 games for the Lions – is well-known for his heroics in the 1995 World Cup-winning campaign, when he formed the Bok lock combination with Hannes Strydom. Five members of the class of 1995 have already died – coach Kitch Christie, flank Ruben Kruger, wings James Small and Chester Williams and scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen.
Christie died from cancer, Kruger from a brain tumour, both Small and Williams from heart attacks and Van der Westhuizen from motor neuron disease.
Wiese’s brother Cornel had communicated with him and reported he was in stable condition in recovery.
A former Bok team-mate, prop Toks van der Linde, told SARugbymag Wiese was in high spirits and asking when he could go home.
After his playing days, Wiese established himself as a SuperSport rugby commentator and analyst. He is also the owner of Wiesenhof coffee shops.
Wiese started his career while attending college in Boland, where he studied teaching.
He turned out for Western Transvaal before joining the Lions in the late 1980s, finishing his playing career there and forming part of the Lions’ Currie Cup-winning campaigns in 1993 and 1994.