4 hours ago
1
Former Livingston and Wycombe Wanderers goalkeeper Stryjek, who returned to the Premiership last summer after a spell with Jagiellonia Bialystok in his homeland, revealed that his aorta, the body's largest artery, "was a bit bigger than usual".
"I think the margin for normal human being is 40-41 millimetres is maximum you can have," he explained. "Mine rose to like 55 and there was a danger of being basically ripped apart and I would just collapse and die.
"So they just told me, listen, there's a high risk of that, so you need to have operation as soon as possible."
Stryjek admits it was a frightening moment, but it was not a complete shock.
"When I moved to Sunderland when I was 16, obviously we had all the medical tests," he said. "Then we got to the point where I was like 18, 19, so 10 years ago, when they actually told me like, listen, you've got this issue, it might be in the future, you might need an operation for it.
"I wasn't really stressed about it, so I just thought, okay, it's something I've got, I have to look after myself, look after my body and then, 10 years later, I'm getting operation done, which I never thought I will have to deal with, but you know, life, it's so unpredictable."
Stryjek felt confident he was "in really good hands" when he travelled to London Bridge Hospital for surgery.
"I knew a doctor who was doing the operation - I think he made 1,500 operations by himself and there was only 3,000 operations in the world made," he said. "He pushed the confidence inside me and I just knew I'm going to get back as soon as possible and everything went to the plan."
Within two days, Stryjek was walking the hospital corridors before getting to know the streets of London as he began a journey back to fitness that current manager Neil McCann has described as "brave".
It was McCann's predecessor, Stuart Kettlewell, who described the Pole as a miracle worker when he returned to training in December.
"I never had a doubt, I just obviously dealt with it day by day, step by step really," Stryjek said.
"I've been playing football since I was seven, to be fair, so I would say probably like I'm an athlete, I'm a professional, so my body obviously recovers better than normal people.
"Obviously, first training sessions, I was really bad, let's put it this way, but obviously it takes time. I would say probably the drive was to come back playing football because I love it and then, obviously, I don't know how I made it."
