Months after being named 2009’s Young World Player of the year, Fruean was diagnosed with rheumatic fever and ordered to have emergency surgery.
His sternum was split down the middle — leaving an eight-inch scar — and his teenage dreams of playing for the All Blacks suddenly vanished. He had a second bout of open-heart surgery in 2013 and, the following year, two further operations after his doctor spotted dangerous heartbeat irregularities.
