'After months in hospital I didn't know if I would ever play again'

AT ONLY 19, Tiaan Sparrow is back playing the sport he loves, a milestone made even more extraordinary considering he spent weeks in intensive care battling a rare illness that nearly ended his rugby dreams before they'd begun.

- STEFFAN THOMAS Rugby Correspondent

Two years ago the then 17-year-old captained the Scarlets U18s to the Regional Age Grade U18s title and was set for inclusion in the Wales U19s squad that spring.

He was tipped for big things, with the Scarlets' head of pathway and academy head coach Scott Sneddon even comparing Sparrow with Wales openside Justin Tipuric in an interview last year.

But almost overnight life changed for Sparrow, who fell ill and spent eight weeks in hospital. Sparrow does not want to disclose his illness but an extremely rare autoimmune disease left the Scarlets backrower gravely unwell and the fact he has succeeded in returning to the field is a monumental achievement in itself.

"At that moment in time I was on a real high and I'd been told I was going to go and play for Wales U19s who were due to play Italy and Ireland after the RAG campaign," he said.

"But literally a week later I found myself in hospital so it was a bit of a crazy turn of events where one week I was feeling on top of the world and then the next hitting rock bottom after getting admitted into hospital.

"Those two weeks were a huge emotional rollercoaster. I spent a total of eight weeks in hospital. Four weeks of that was in intensive care.

"It was a really challenging time because, especially when I went into intensive care, I didn't know if I would ever play again or if I was ever going to get better."

Most rugby players have to deal with serious injuries at some point in their career but instead of facing a long road to recovery due to a broken bone, Sparrow faced an almighty uphill challenge.

Sparrow - who hails from Ammanford - went through what no person his age should go through.

"It happened out of the blue. There was no explanation to it and there was no picking up a cold and it developing from there or anything like that. At one point it got really serious. I genuinely didn't think I'd be back playing.