Earlier in September, the cycling star was involved in a serious traffic accident. Afterwards, he was put into an artificial coma from which he awoke later in the day.
“Nathan Van Hooydonck is awake and has no injuries after the traffic accident earlier today. His state of health is not critical,” wrote Jumbo-Visma on X, previously Twitter in connection with this.
Van Hooydonck felt unwell while driving the car and now the doctors have discovered that he has a heart defect. Something that forces him to end his cycling career, 27 years young.
“I’ve realized that I was incredibly lucky. Things could have gone very differently if I didn’t get such good help so quickly. I’m fine now, but I still have to deal with the fact that this is the end of my professional career,” he says in A statement.
Van Hooydonck has had a defibrillator, a so-called ICD, implanted.