Shanghai Grand Theatre, Shanghai - Schalk Burger wore the broadest of smiles and his family the happiest of tears as he was presented with the Comeback of the Year award at the Laureus World Sports Awards on Wednesday night.
The big blond flank’s return from life-threatening viral meningitis to pulling on the Springbok jersey again is a tale of miracles and wonders, of a giant of a man so close to death, his family were prepared to say goodbye to him. He would celebrate, he said, with a few beers.
“But not too many. I have to play for the Stormers against the Force on Saturday,” smiled Burger, who paid tribute to his family. “I think this was tougher on the family than it was on me. It was quite scary for everyone. Basically, they got the phone call to say ‘This is it. Your oldest son is on the way out.’ I was newly married with a six-month-old baby.
“It’s crazy how much things change in two years. I don’t think humans are programmed to remember the bad things. When I look back now, through everything, I tend to pick out the positives. It was a scary time for all of them, my wife, my family and my mates.”
Burger said anger and stubbornness kept him going through the critical time of his illness, when he was in isolation in critical care after having gone in to have a cyst near his spinal cord drained. He picked up a bug in hospital.
“I was fighting for every second of my life. Every heartbeat felt like someone was putting a knife straight into my brain. I was in an enclosed room. I don’t have the vocabulary to describe how badly I felt. For me, what it came to was not giving in. I think my fight from within was driven by anger. I was angry at the situation. The pain was excruciating,” Burger recalled.
“At that stage, I was too busy fighting for my life to think of saying goodbye. It did occur to me the day after all my friends had been there (to say goodbye), and I was still around, that was probably the day they thought I was supposed to go. Luckily, I got through it and started feeling better and better.”
Burger’s next goal is to make the World Cup squad, his fourth time at the tournament, including the 2007 World Cup-winning squad. Pulling on the Springbok jersey again last year was as emotional a moment as he has experienced.
“You go through certain phases in your rehabilitation, and that was the big one. You set certain goals, and the first goal is very modest, to get back and try to play rugby again professionally. When something gets taken away from you, you want it back.
“My first Test match back was very emotional. That was me saying ‘I’m not done yet’.” At some stages, I thought about giving up with the illness because it was so painful. The same with getting back into rugby. I look at this award and I think there is a hell of a lot of blood, sweat and tears in it.”
Burger put down his award for a spell on Wednesday night to get, in his words, “a cold beverage” in his right hand. He planned to meet as many of the sporting superstars here as possible, starting with Mick Doohan, the former motorbike world champion.
“I’m a bit of motor racing fanatic,” Burger said. “So I want to meet Mick Doohan. I saw Mika Hakkinen sitting two rows in front of me and got to meet him.”
The Star