Gom june '14 issue 07 schalk burger

SCHALK BURGER UNBREAKABLE

UNBREAKABLE:

SCHALK BURGER

By Kobus Pretorius

Springbok flank Schalk Burger has twice been written off in a rugby career that spans more than a decade, but there is seemingly nothing that can stop him from playing the game he loves.

The scepticism that surrounded Burger’s possible comeback from a sickbed that could easily have killed him was so widespread that we could easily have been referring to him now as ‘former Springbok and Stormers flank Schalk Burger’.

But Burger has persevered through the darkest moments not only of his career, but of his life as well.

He made his long-awaited comeback in last year’s Currie Cup against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, 18 months after the initial knee injury that he suffered during the game against the Hurricanes at Newlands in February 2012.

Burger completed the circle when Heyneke Meyer included him in his Springbok squad for the incoming home series against Wales and Scotland.

Burger played 20 minutes against the World XV in Cape Town on June 7, before making his official comeback in the Springbok jersey in the first test against Wales at Kings Park in Durban where he came off the bench in the 38-16 victory.

Photos: BackPage Media Henry Kelbrick

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Game On Magazine, June: Issue 07, 2014

ATHLETE SPORTING FEATURE: RUGBY

“The knee injury I had in 2012 didn’t really threaten my career, but it was a big knee injury. The fear with the knee injury was that it would take me a while to get back to my best and play good rugby again,” Burger recalls.

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SCHALK BURGER UNBREAKABLE

This was not the first time that injury put a spanner in the works for Burger. He suffered his first potential careerending injury in 2006 when he injured his neck in the Springboks 29-15 victory over Scotland in June of that year.

The injury required cervical fusion surgery which resulted in fears that he may never play rugby again. The operation was, however, successful, and was followed by a lengthy rehabilitation period.

Burger made his comeback for the Springboks in May 2007 and scored a try in South Africa’s 58-10 victory over England.

Fast forward to 2012. Burger injures his knee in the Stormers’ opening Super Rugby game of the season against the Hurricanes. The initial prognosis at the time was that Burger would be sidelined between four and six weeks with a torn ligament.

He eventually missed the entire 2012 rugby season. Burger had a further setback at the beginning of 2013 when he strained his calf muscle while doing pre-season training with the Stormers.

He had an operation to reduce pressure on a nerve that was influencing the performance of his calf muscle when it was discovered that it was connected with a cyst in his back next to his spinal cord.

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Game On Magazine, June: Issue 07, 2014

ATHLETE SPORTING FEATURE: RUGBY

SIDE BAR How much sleep do you get having two young children in the house?

(Laughs). Less than what I used to in the old days. Both kids are pretty chilled. The youngest one is only two months old so he keeps us up some nights, but the oldest is a good sleeper so we are pretty fortunate there.

Any advice for men becoming fathers soon?

Enjoy your life. Make every moment count because when you become a dad you’ll be needed at home.

I think what you miss the most is your social life and spending time with friends. You spend a lot of time at home which is very nice and a wonderful experience. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. However you can no longer do things on the spur of the moment. In the old days you used to just get in the car and have a good time with friends at short notice. Nowadays everything is a bit more planned.

Favourite team at school: Western Province, The Springboks.

Favourite player at school: Zinzan Brooke

Favourite book: Car magazine

First car: 88 Silver 1.8l Avant Station Wagon

Dream car: Driving it at the moment. A Range Rover Sport.

Favourite music: Rock, Alternative.

Counting Crows when I was in high school.

If you were not a rugby player. . .: Hopefully sports. Maybe a cricket player.

Favourite holiday destination: Yzerfontein on the West Coast.

Most difficult flank you have played against: At international level it’s George Smith and Richie McCaw.

How many times a week do you braai: At least twice a week.

Most talented up and coming player at the Stormers: Damian de Allende.

Favourite meat to braai: I’m actually a bit of a pork man.

Most underrated player at the Stormers: Deon Fourie.

Favourite side dish: Braaibroodjie.

Most romantic thing you have ever done: Proposing to my wife at the One and Only.

Burger picked up a hospital bug during an operation to relieve the pressure by draining the cyst which led to him contracting bacterial meningitis.

This is how he described his ordeal at the time in a statement to the media: “There was a critical stage for about four, nearly five days in which there was a lot of uncertainty. Obviously through that period I was in isolation and I was seriously ill … so ill in fact, that some people around me thought, ‘This is it’.”

“My neck injury in 2006 was scary,” recalls Burger. “It could have ended my career. There was a big fear that I wouldn’t be able to play rugby again. I was still young at the time and in the prime of my life. It was a long injury but I managed to recover and continue my career.

“Big guys like me usually lose a bit of mobility after a knee injury like that, but I always knew that I would play rugby again.”

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SCHALK BURGER UNBREAKABLE

However, the calf strain together with the cyst pressing against his spinal cord changed things dramatically for Schalk.

“The bacterial meningitis was a curve ball,” admits Burger.

“I almost died. I spent two months in hospital and another month at home. You have to hang on. There was a stage when it started getting the better of me and that’s when you start to wonder and doubt yourself.

“I feared for my life. It also put my life into perspective. Rugby was the biggest and most important thing in my life, but when you’re lying there you just wish you can recover sufficiently to have a good quality of life. I have a young family and a wife - I hung on and survived for them.”

Burger says the scariest part of the whole ordeal was the unknown.

“Am I going to be blind or deaf or maybe even paralysed? Or am I going to have a normal life again. That is the stuff that’s going through your head. Anything could have happened to me. The possibilities were endless.”

Burger made his second comeback last year against the Cheetahs in the Currie Cup and although he has struggled with some niggling injuries since then, he managed to play some Super Rugby for the Stormers this season.

During this time Burger has put in some stellar performances which convinced Heyneke Meyer to include him in the Springboks training group for the first time since the quarterfinal of the 2011 World Cup. Burger seems unbreakable. He laughs.

“I think my history proves I’m not unbreakable. I played a lot of rugby and sometimes you get to a point where you almost feel immortal, because your body take so many big hits all the time and you get through and just move forward.”

“If you get to where I am now having had some big, serious injuries, then you realise that you’re just human. I am definitely mortal.”

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SIDE BAR Schalk has recently announced that he has signed a two-year contract with Japanese club, Suntory Sungoliath, but he will continue to be available to play for the Stormers. Burger will link up with his new club in August and will therefore not feature for Western Province in the 2014 Absa Currie Cup, but he will return to Cape Town for the 2015 Vodacom Super Rugby season.

Thirty-one-year-old Burger played his first senior match for DHL WP in 2003 (against the Mighty Elephants), boasting a total of 37 caps for Province. He has also played 95 matches for the Stormers since his Super Rugby debut against the Waratahs in 2004.

The most-capped Springbok flank of all time, Burger has 70 Springbok caps to his name and was part of the Tri-Nations winning teams of 2004 and 2009, as well as playing a pivotal role in South Africa’s 2007 Rugby World Cup triumph. Burger was voted the IRB World Player of the Year in 2004 and the SA Rugby Player of the Year in 2004 and 2011.

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