Kruger stands firm in biggest test

Kruger will never forget the time and place; Sunday, October 15 this year at Loftus Versveld - the steepling Afrikaner temple where the Blue Bulls were wrapping up another Northern Transvaal season against the Gauteng Falcons. Another tackle, another knockout and Kruger found himself retired hurt, never imagining for a moment that he was suffering from a brain tumour.

'I tackled the guy and couldn't remember anything else,' he said. 'It was a hard knock, not a big one, but the lights went out and I thought that was strange because they'd gone out in the previous match. I'd had big knocks before without the lights going out.'

The next day he was in the hands of a neuro- surgeon in Pretoria.

'They took me for a scan and found a second-grade tumour in my head,' explained Kruger on his arrival in London with wife Lize this week, straight from a golfing break in Swaziland.

'At first, the brain surgeon thought it could be related to rugby. Then, after more X-rays, he told me there was no chance that it had been caused by any knocks on the field.

'I knew it was all over. You play one day, then the next day you are finished. I've been playing since I was six years old and I don't understand Saturdays without rugby. I think I'll go into coaching, I'm too young to let go.

'Rugby is a great game but it's not so nice that I want to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. Giving up is a small price to pay. I've had a nice innings but I was in a state of shock for four or five days. Some people phoned me up and they seemed to think I was already dead! I said: "No, it's not going to kill me. I'm still alive, still kicking".

'Then you read in the paper that this tumour could kill me in three months. There's no way that will happen. I tell my wife that I feel like I'm 20 but, unfortunately, the thing is there and I can't wash it away. I have to be careful but I don't think there'll be a problem. I think everything will be OK.

'It's a dormant tumour but I'd sooner have found out about it now than in 10 years. They did a biopsy and the doctor says he doesn't want to do any surgery at the moment. It's being monitored every three months and obviously I don't know what will happen when they X-ray it again in three months.

'It will take maybe six months before they find out. The treatment consists of one tablet a day for five days each month. It's an absolutely fantastic American drug which only became available in South Africa this year. It's a form of chemo, your hair doesn't fall out but you get sick, really sick and you get a hell of a headache.

'I take it with sickness pills but I'll manage the match and I'll manage the golf, after a quick run behind the bushes! I used to be one of life's worriers but, since finding out about this, I've become very positive about everything. If you sit and cry about it, you will go downhill.

'I carry on with life and never think about it. I believe this thing will be healed. I'm lucky to have these tablets because only six or seven other people in South Africa can afford this drug. It's so expensive that it's almost unpayable for us.'

The monthly dosage, £2,500 in sterling, costs infinitely more in rand due to the exchange rate.

Sunday's golf tournament at Addington Palace in Croydon, organised by Nigel Johnson - managing director of the Bromley-based Rainbow Nation Group - will raise at least £80,000 towards Kruger's care and the Children's Leukaemia Society.

Six-handicapper Kruger might well walk off with his own trophy, always assuming that his wife, who plays off 10, does not beat him to it.