“I saw stars”
Professional collapses at a wedding and suffers cardiac arrest
January 7, 2025 – 5:20 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Athletes also use tobacco. However, this habit has almost become her undoing for Hassane Kolingar.
French rugby international Hassane Kolingar suffered a cardiac arrest last summer. As the 26-year-old now reports in the rugby magazine “Midi Olympique”, a small bag of snus led to the health problems. “My eardrums were pounding, I felt like someone was sticking needles in my head. My eyes rolled back, I went into cardiac arrest.”
Snus is a variant of smokeless tobacco that is primarily widespread in Scandinavia. The person puts small bags behind their upper lip and the tobacco enters the bloodstream through the mucous membranes of the mouth and unfolds.
The incident by Kolingar, who is under contract with the Parisian team Racing 92, occurred at the wedding of his teammate Ibrahim Diallo. “When I arrived at the wedding, I stuck a snus to my gums. It’s not illegal – there’s tobacco in it, but it really sucked for me,” Kolingar recalled.
At some point he had to laugh and felt pressure in his chest: “My heart was beating very fast, I was sweating profusely and was seeing stars. I thought it was just hypoglycemia – and I didn’t want to disrupt the wedding ceremony,” he continued. Shortly afterwards, Kolingar suffered cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital.
The doctors on site diagnosed him with tachycardia, an increase in heart rate. But things got even worse for Kolingar: “Because my pulse just wouldn’t go down, the doctors put me in an induced coma.” Doctors also performed heart surgery to clean up a scar. According to Kolingar, he has had this since birth.
The incident also highlights snus consumption in professional sports. According to a study by Loughborough University and the English players’ union, around 20 percent of professional footballers in England use these nicotine products. However, the health risks should not be underestimated, as Kolingar’s case shows. The professional had to take a break for six months. He only celebrated his comeback last Sunday and explained the long downtime.