Basketball World Cup: five days after a shock in the middle of a match, Serbian Borisa Simanic loses a kidney

The action seemed harmless, almost insignificant. The consequences ultimately turn out to be dramatic. Last Wednesday, during a duel under the basket, Serbian interior Borisa Simanic (2.11m) received a – violent – elbow in the lower stomach from South Sudanese Nuni Omot during a World Cup game. Simanic, who came into play shortly before, remains standing for a few moments before crouching down and leaving the field.

The interior is finally rushed to a hospital in Manila, where the competition is taking place, where he undergoes a first intervention. If the player has to forfeit, the first diagnoses did not seem worrying.

“It was a huge shock for all of us, we couldn’t expect such a blow to be not only painful but also tragic. It’s good that it’s over, ”said coach Svetislav Pesic. The latter, however, specified that his player had lost a lot of blood and that there was very little reserve in the hospital. “The players looked for extra blood because it was not possible to collect enough but it ended well,” he said then.

Five days later, the situation unfortunately changed to another reality. Borisa Simanic’s state of health has indeed deteriorated and worsened in recent days. The 25-year-old was forced to undergo a second operation on Sunday, September 3, more serious this time and urgently. Doctors were forced to remove a kidney. In a press release, the Serbian Federation indicates that “due to changes in the vitality of the kidney tissue, the entire kidney had to be surgically removed. »

A situation as rare as it is dramatic and which casts a veil over the rest of the Zaragoza player’s career. It is now difficult to know if he will be able to find his way back to the courts even if in the past athletes have managed to return to competition after such an operation.

Swiss hockey player Simon Le Coultre, victim of the removal of a kidney last January, was able to play again two months later. In France the most famous example is that of footballer Fabien Lemoine. Operated for a nephrectomy in August 2010 after a shock during a match between his club Rennes and Nancy, he was able to put on his crampons in December of the same year.