“Heard this bang in my chest”
Ex-Bundesliga coach survived deadly hantavirus
Updated May 8, 2026 – 8:59 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
The Hantavirus continues to attract attention. After the outbreak on a cruise ship, a former Bundesliga coach is now speaking about his illness.
Former Bundesliga coach Ralph Hasenhüttl spoke about his hantavirus illness from 2012 in an interview with the English newspaper “Mirror”. At the time, the Austrian was the coach at VfR Aalen and had just been promoted to the second division.
Three people have already died after the virus recently broke out on the Dutch cruise ship “MS Hondius”. An infected woman from Germany is currently being treated in Düsseldorf. (Read more about this here.)
During the training camp, Hasenhüttl went on a mountain bike tour with his team, after which he felt incredibly exhausted: “I went to bed and it all started with a headache. It felt like there was a needle in my head. Then I got serious back pain. It was like there was a knife stuck in my back.”
In the video | Cruise captain announces death news
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Doctors later found out that the pain was caused by the now 58-year-old’s liver and kidneys having expanded so much that they were pressing against other organs, causing pain in his back.
Hasenhüttl was in the intensive care unit for two weeks: “My heartbeat woke me up in the night because it was so intense. I heard this bang in my chest.” The consequences of the illness: He lost weight and his kidneys began to weaken. The trainer was warned: “You have to wait for your body to produce antibodies and then hope you survive.”
In Hasenhüttl’s case, the illness was subsequently attributed to indirect contact with rodents. Basically, dust is said to have been the source of infection. “I cleaned the terrace without a mask and probably inhaled the dust,” explained Hasenhüttl. The illness itself broke out two to three weeks later. The recovery process took just as long.
His career then took off. He won the 2nd Bundesliga championship with Ingolstadt in 2015 and later coached Leipzig and Wolfsburg. He is currently without a club.
