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<\/p>\nThe South African forward was withdrawn from the game after half an hour<\/p>\n
Liebenberg was pulled from the game in the first half(Image: All Blacks)<\/p>\n
South African rugby star Hanro Liebenberg has revealed he was pulled from the field during the Bulls’ clash with New Zealand last month after his baby daughter went into cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
The former Leicester Tigers forward – who returned to the Pretoria-based side this summer after seven years in England – started the match at Loftus Versfeld Stadium, which the All Blacks went on to win 50-19. However, he was withdrawn from proceedings after just half an hour by coach Johan Ackermann.<\/p>\n
Now, the terrifying reason behind Liebenberg’s sudden exit has been revealed, with Bulls team management receiving word during the first half that his daughter Liviah’s heart had stopped, and he needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
JOIN OUR WALES RUGBY FACEBOOK PAGE Latest news, analysis and much more<\/a><\/p>\n Liviah had been born less than two weeks earlier with a rare heart defect – an interrupted aortic arch – as well as two holes in her heart. She had undergone open-heart surgery days before the match and was “up and down health-wise” following the procedure.<\/p>\n Having taken to the field to face the All Blacks, Liebenberg rushed to the hospital to be with his wife, Danielle, and he has now admitted that they were “ready to go and say goodbye” to their daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cShe went in for open-heart surgery that Monday before the match,\u201d the 30-year-old told Rapport.<\/a> \u201cShe was up and down health-wise the whole week, because that kind of surgery places enormous stress on a baby.<\/p>\n “They needed me. It is also one of the reasons why I came back to South Africa from England \u2013 because my family comes first.<\/p>\n \u201cHer little heart had stopped completely,” he continued. “They had to revive her and put her on life support. It was harrowing.<\/p>\n \u201cMy wife and I were ready to go and say goodbye to our daughter on the Sunday. We told ourselves we needed to make peace with it \u2013 that this was not meant for us.\u201d<\/p>\n However, miraculously, Liebenberg and his wife were told by doctors when they arrived at the hospital that Liviah was still fighting, and she has since recovered enough to go home.<\/p>\n \u201cBy God\u2019s grace, she just grew stronger and stronger,” the former South Africa U20s international explained. “Healthier. We are so grateful for that.”<\/p>\n After over a month in hospital, Liviah was discharged last week and has met her one-year-old brother Lucah for the first time.<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South African forward was withdrawn from the game after half an hour Liebenberg was pulled from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[36918,5903,30347,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-new-zealand-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa-rugby-team","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}