Rugby saved my life - Groves on recovery from heart surgery

"I always think that rugby saved my life. If I didn't play rugby, if I wasn't at Sale, I would never have known that my heart was in danger of failing."

- TOM JEFFREYS

Those are the reflective words of Sale Sharks second row Alex Groves, who is due to make his first start for the club since the open heart surgery he urgently required just shy of a year ago, on February 11, 2024. It interrupted his breakout year having joined the club from Bristol in February 2022, a year on from winning the grand slam for England u20s.

Four years ago, Groves was told during some preseason cardio screenings - tests unavailable to the public without symptoms that he had a leaky valve in his heart. 'Nothing abnormal there, he was told. 'One in four have it, we'll just have to monitor it' When those same tests were carried out in his first preseason at Sale, he was told the situation had worsened beyond expectation, and that he would need surgery within the next four-to-five years to stop his heart from growing to a size where it wouldn't be able to support itself.

Then, on January 5, 2024, Groves' 23rd birthday, he was told that the discovery of an aneurism required urgent action.

"With an aneurism coming into play I couldn't play rugby, there was no choice about it", he says. "An aneurism is the lining on the wall for your artery, so it has a good chance of rupturing if it gets any form of contact straight to it. If that ruptures then it would be life-threatening, and I'd be on the field where I couldn't get the support I needed.