Former Springbok fly-half in a critical condition in hospital – report
Derick Hougaard for the Springboks at the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Former Springbok fly-half Derick Hougaard is fighting for his life in a Pretoria hospital and has been in a coma for more than a week, according to media reports in South Africa.
Netwerk24 reported that the 40-year-old, who represented the Boks in eight Tests between 2003 and 2007, was admitted to hospital on June 10 after being found unconscious by his girlfriend, singer Nadine.
Inflammation in his lungs
According to the report, Hougaard, who represented the Bulls in more than 100 matches and also had stints with Premiership sides Leicester Tigers and Saracens, has inflammation of the lungs.
On Sunday, the Rapport newspaper reported that Hougaard was given a 50% chance of waking from his coma.
“He has not been awake since then and is on a ventilator because his lungs are not working properly,” a source told the newspaper.
“He is in the intensive care unit where only one person can visit him at a time, so it is a very difficult situation.
“It is obviously traumatic for everyone who goes to visit him to see him with so many pipes in his body and to know that he is fighting for his life.”
Only close family are allowed to visit Hougaard at the moment and his friends told Rapport that they hope a toxicology report will be made available soon, to provide an answer over the cause of what happened.
He was still active on social media on Friday, June 9 and his last Facebook post was of him sharing a Planet Rugby tribute post to his former Bulls and Boks team-mate Pierre Spies, who celebrated his 38th birthday the previous day.
Key player for the Bulls
Hougaard was the Bulls’ fly-half between 2002 and 2008 when they won the Currie Cup three times and the first of their Super Rugby titles.
The latter triumph was in 2007 in Durban when he slotted the match-winning conversion after Bryan Habana had scored a try in the game’s dying moments.
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