{"id":938652,"date":"2026-10-24T00:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/938652\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T00:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:30:21","slug":"fans-rally-around-nrl-and-all-blacks-icon-sonny-bill-williams-after-horrifying-reveal-in-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/938652\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans rally around NRL and All Blacks icon Sonny Bill Williams after horrifying reveal in retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL<\/a> and rugby union legend Sonny Bill Williams<\/a> (SBW) has revealed he underwent extensive surgery for a heart defect discovered during a routine health check. The 41-year-old, who has won NRL premierships at both the Bulldogs<\/a> and Roosters, was undergoing a check following neck surgery.<\/p>\n

This is when doctors found a serious heart defect. SBW was born with the heart defect and played his entire sporting career without knowing. On Friday, Williams posted to social media to announce he had undergone open-heart surgery and admitted ahead of the procedure he wasn’t sure if he would survive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The World Cup winning All Blacks star said the surgery was a success and the concern of ‘dropping dead’ had been reduced thanks to the remarkable octors. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Day two, honestly, I thought I wasn’t going to make it. It was crazy,” the former All Blacks star said on his YouTube video.<\/p>\n

“I’m so grateful. The doctor I seen this morning, he’s just told me that having this heart implication throughout my life would have implicated me and my sporting career. And upon reflecting, I feel like towards my late-20s, I definitely felt like I couldn’t get as fit as I used to…<\/p>\n

“The doctors both said that it’s a miracle that you found it because it’s a case of a perfectly fit looking person dropping dead. Because my heart was 7.5 centimetres, it was about to pop as the doctors said. Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God). And now, the doctors said that I’ve got a better heart than when I walked in here because it’s more efficient now. The magnitude of the surgery, two open-heart surgeries in one, and it’s been so successful.”<\/p>\n

Williams is expected to make a strong recovery. The All Blacks great said he is going to make it his mission to raise awareness around heart checks.<\/p>\n

Rugby union and league fans rally around SBW<\/p>\n

Fans were quick to rally around the popular cross-code star. SBW has won over fans around the world having played NRL, rugby union and even forayed into boxing in retirement.<\/p>\n

‘Speedy recovery warrior,” one fan on his Instagram wrote. “Stay strong legend,” another user wrote.<\/p>\n

Sonny Bill Williams’ stunning sports career<\/p>\n

Williams started in the NRL in 2004 having played 73 games for the Bulldogs. He won a premiership in his first season. The New Zealand-born star then left to take up rugby union four Toulouse in 2008.<\/p>\n

Not long after SBW fulfilled a dream and earned his first cap for the All Blacks where he went on to represent his country 58 times. He won two World Cups in 2011 and 2015.<\/p>\n

He made a late return to the NRL where he won a premiership with the Roosters in 2013. He retired from both rugby codes in 2021 and took up boxing. Only last year, SBW fought NRL great Paul Gallen. He lost the fight on decision after plenty of years of back-and-forth between the pair. The two appeared to bury the fued after the fight.<\/p>\n

\"Sonny<\/p>\n

Sonny Bill Williams (pictured) is a two-time Rugby Union World Cup winner. (Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL and rugby union legend Sonny Bill Williams (SBW) has revealed he underwent extensive surgery for a heart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-938652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}