Scottish Premiership goalkeeper: My aorta could have ripped apart and killed me

A Scottish Premiership goalkeeper has told how he could have died without open heart surgery.

But Kilmarnock’s Max Stryjek insisted he never had a doubt he would return to the pitch.

The 29-year-old’s medical problem was first flagged up when he started his career at Sunderland, but when he was told his aorta was in danger of “being ripped apart”, he underwent surgery in the London Bridge hospital on November 18.

A remarkable recovery, which included walking the streets of London for fitness, saw the Polish keeper reinstated to the Kilmarnock team for the 1-0 defeat by Aberdeen two weeks ago.

Stryjek admitted that being told he could die was something that he “never thought he would have to deal with”.

“My aorta was a bit bigger than usual”, he said. “The margin for a human being is 40, 41 millimetres, that is the maximum you can have. Mine rolled to 55, and it was in danger of being basically ripped apart, and I would just collapse and die.

“So they told me there’s a high risk of that so you need to have an operation as soon as possible.

“It was scary, obviously, but what can you do? It’s life.

“And I just got to that point where I wasn’t really thinking about it, I felt fine, I felt sharp and I didn’t really feel anything stressful about it. I just felt like, ‘OK, I’ve got something and that’s it’.

“I knew the doctor who was doing the operation, I think he carried out 1,500 operations by himself and there were only 3,000 operations carried out in the world, so I knew I was in good hands. That boosted the confidence inside me and I knew I was going to get back as soon as possible.

“I never had a doubt. I just dealt with it. Day by day, step by step.

“My first aim was to get out of the hospital bed which I managed to do two days after the operation.

“Then I started walking around the corridors of the hospital, then three or four days after operation, I started walking outside, and then I had to stay in London for another two weeks, just in case.

“So I know London pretty well to be fair, because I walked around the streets and all the tourist places.”

Stryjek described the surgery as a “life-changing” moment that made him realise there was more important things in life than football.

However, he was still motivated to come back to the game – and no one – even his fiancée – was going to tell him otherwise.

“I still love football, it’s still my passion, but it got to the point where I have a fiancée now, so it was a life-changing moment for me to obviously realise there are more important things in life than football, like your health and people around you,” he said.

“But I’m still passionate about football, I still love football, at the end of the day, it’s my job.

“If someone told me I couldn’t play football right now, I’d be gutted. It’s my drive, my priority in life.

“If my fiancée actually told me, you can’t play football, I would dump her.”

After his “emotional” comeback, Stryjek kept his place for the 3-0 victory against Dundee United on Saturday, where Neil McCann’s side came out of the relegation spots for the first time this year

They now face St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday in a crucial clash.

He said: “I expected to come back against Aberdeen which was January 31.

“But I was on a bench and I was gutted not to play, but obviously the manager made the decision.

“But it was an emotional moment for me (at Pittodrie) because I just thought, ‘it’s not going to happen this season’.

“But something inside me told me, ‘I’m going to play in this game’.

“I don’t know why, but obviously I’m just happy to come back and play two games, so it’s amazing.”