Selwyn Times: January 27, 2021

Selwyn Times Wednesday January 27 2021
8
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Covid-19: ‘It just hit me, it dropped
• By Chris Barclay
AFTER AGONISING over
whether to take up an overseas
coaching assignment with Fiji
in a Covid-19 dead zone, Jason
Ryan grimaced as he made a
chilling call home to his family
in Lincoln.
The professional rugby opportunity
of a lifetime ended up
resembling a near-death experience
in France for the Crusaders
assistant coach, when he was enveloped
in a team-wide outbreak
of the contagious virus.
Ryan was far from the jovial
character he typically displays
during training sessions with
the Super Rugby Aotearoa
champions, when revisiting his
close encounter with the global
pandemic.
The specialist forwards coach
had reservations about joining
Vern Cotter’s Fiji squad for the
eight-team Autumn Nations
Cup, and those concerns were
realised two weeks into the trip
when he tested positive on November
15.
Initially Ryan brushed off
the result – one of 29 positives
among a tour party of 42 – at
Fiji’s base in Limoges.
“I felt fine, no problem. For the
next couple of days I was training
with coaches, we were getting on
SCARE: After recovering from a serious case of Covid-19, Crusaders assistant coach Jason
Ryan is back in the secure confines of Lincoln.
with it, we were training from
a distance, isolated and doing everything
right.”
Then his health took a sinister
turn.
“On the fourth day it just hit
me, it dropped me. It was tough.
I went through the process you
read about. You lose your taste
and smell.”
Ryan’s breathing deteriorated
to such an extent he was taken to
hospital for a heart scan, fearing
the worst: “I said ‘Doc, there’s a
couple of numbers here if I’m no
good’.”
Fortunately the scan was clear,
not that Ryan, 45, was comforted
as he returned to the team hotel,
under the care of the squad’s two
doctors.
“I was aching and sweating
at night. I felt like my body was
shutting down,” he said.
A 180-game front rower for
Sydenham, Ryan had been
involved in plenty of collapsed
scrums, but this pressure was
unique.
“It was like someone was
standing on your chest. Imagine
you go for a big run, then
someone stands on your chest
and you’ve got to breathe. I could
only breathe about a quarter of
the way in.
“It’s hard to explain. It was the
hardest time of my life, and the
hardest part was facetiming family
at home.”
After a couple of updates with
Cath and the kids, Ryan curtailed
face-to-face contact:
“I just gave up on it, I said: ‘It’s
just not worth seeing me like
this’.”
Ryan’s plight also prompted
him to second guess his decision
to tour, again.
“Getting on the plane to the
other side of the world is probably
one of the toughest things
I’ve ever done. I nearly stayed at
home. A big cloud came over me,
I’m thinking: ‘What am I doing
here?’ Wales and Scotland were
still in lockdown,” he said.
“When we were walking
through customs in Auckland
there was nothing open, no duty
free nowhere to eat and here we
are getting on a half-full plane to
Dubai.”
During recovery Ryan was
given reassurances by medical
staff and techniques to aid his
oxygen intake, though he still
fretted in isolation.
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