Apollon Limassol defender Connor Goldson is targeting a return to football around 12 weeks after undergoing a second open-heart operation, with the need for surgery being identified through routine athlete health screening in Cyprus.
The 33-year-old former Rangers centre-back underwent a 13-hour operation in London in July and is already back on the pitch in Cyprus doing individual fitness work, five weeks into his recovery.
As reported by The National Scot, Goldson explained in an interview with talkSPORT that the problem emerged when he underwent the medical checks required for his athlete Health Card in Cyprus.
Goldson said he had passed the same checks during his previous two years on the island, but this time a doctor found that measurements relating to his heart had increased. A second specialist confirmed the change the following day, prompting him to return to England to see the surgeon who had previously treated him.
The Cyprus diagnosis did not uncover Goldson’s heart condition for the first time. His original problem was detected during routine screening while he was playing for Brighton in 2017, leading to his first open-heart operation. He subsequently returned to football, joined Rangers in 2018 and later moved to Aris Limassol before signing for city rivals Apollon this summer.
The latest episode does, however, highlight the role played by Cyprus’s athlete Health Card system.
The card is administered by the Cyprus Sports Organisation and is a requirement for athletes participating through recognised federations and clubs. KOA describes it as a statutory preventive measure intended to help prevent sudden cardiac incidents and identify medical conditions that could put an athlete’s health at risk.
Medical requirements include clinical and cardiological examinations, with an electrocardiogram among the tests required for athletes in Goldson’s age group.
After the abnormal measurements were detected, Goldson said the first doctors he consulted in Cyprus advised him to “forget football” and concentrate on his wife and three children.
His surgeon in England took a more optimistic view, telling him he could be fit again after allowing around 12 weeks for his chest bone to heal.
Goldson underwent the operation just days later. He subsequently revealed that the procedure lasted 13 hours, followed by a night in intensive care and another in a high-dependency unit before he returned to a normal hospital ward.
He is now back in Cyprus and training individually, although he has not yet been cleared for contact work.
“I’m itching to get back,” Goldson told talkSPORT.
“I’m playing with a ball, I’m running five kilometers in my sessions. So I think the surgeon said to me 12 weeks for this bone to heal. The heart’s fine straight away. I had the follow-up with him 10 days ago, he gave me the all-clear, everything’s good with the heart. So now it’s just this chest bone basically healing. He said 12 weeks, I’m five weeks down, so if you look, another seven weeks maybe to go. During that time, I’ll get fit and get ready and then we’ll see after that.”The remaining issue is allowing his chest bone to heal sufficiently before contact training can resume.”
