Rugby professional collapses after consuming snus at a wedding

Nothing knocks French rugby professional Hassane Kolingar down so easily. But last summer, a small bag of snus, a Scandinavian version of oral tobacco, was fatal to the star of the Parisian team Racing 92 and caused a cardiac arrest. Kolingar now reported this to the rugby magazine “Midi Olympique”.

Accordingly, the 26-year-old consumed a snus bag at the wedding of his teammate Ibrahim Diallo. To do this, you put the small bags in your mouth and keep them there. The tobacco enters the bloodstream through the mucous membranes of the mouth and thus develops its effect.

For Kolingar, consumption led to a dangerous side reaction: he collapsed. “My eardrums were pounding, I felt like someone was sticking needles in my head. My eyes rolled back, I went into cardiac arrest.”

At the hospital, doctors discovered that the rugby professional, who also plays for the French national team, was suffering from tachycardia – an increase in heart rate. “Because my heart rate just wouldn’t go down, the doctors put me in an induced coma,” Kolingar said in the interview. Doctors also performed a small procedure on his heart to remove scarring.

Kolingar then had to take a break for six months, and it was only last Sunday that he celebrated his comeback and gave the reason for his long absence.

Snus is a form of tobacco that is particularly common in Norway and Sweden and is fashionable throughout Europe. Although the granularly ground tobacco is banned in the EU, it can easily be ordered online. In the EU, so-called chewing bags are also offered as an alternative, in which the tobacco is finely chopped. Snus is only permitted in Sweden, where you can buy the pouches in any tobacco shop.

Snus is said to have a performance-enhancing effect on athletes, but it is not on the list of banned substances and is therefore apparently popular. According to a study, 20 percent of footballers in England regularly tuck the bags behind their lips.

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