Demetri Catrakilis: After fighting for his life, Harlequins’ outside-half is just glad to be playing again

Helping hand | Demetri Catrakilis is carried off in the match against Gloucester in September with a throat injury that left him struggling to breathe
Getty Images for Harlequins
Chris Jones28 February 2018

Demetri Catrakilis played for just 13 minutes in Harlequins’ defeat by Newcastle on Saturday but it was an incredible achievement for a player who was left fighting for his life during his last appearance, in September.

The outside-half was taken off the pitch on a stretcher, with an oxygen mask on his face as he fought against the swelling that was constricting his throat and making breathing increasingly difficult.

Catrakilis, who joined the club from Montpellier last summer, had been accidentally struck in the throat by the shoulder of Gloucester’s Andy Symons and the ramifications of that collision could never have been envisaged.

Catrakilis could not breathe. He needed oxygen and feared for his life during the 30-minute ambulance ride to hospital, where he was given injections to relax his throat.

However, the internal damage caused by the blow not only threatened to end his playing career, it left him unable to speak for a week. Catrakilis still sees a speech therapist every week as he continues to battle to regain his normal vocal strength.

He said: “To get back to playing you have to overcome quite a few negative thoughts, and injuries can happen to any part of your body. This has changed my perception of life because there was a stage when I didn’t know if I was going to survive.”

In the midst of his fight to save his career, Catrakilis returned to his native South Africa before Christmas to get married in Cape Town and he had made enough of a recovery to be able to deliver his groom’s speech, although he admits it sounded more like a homage to Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

“I think it added something to the speech,” said Catrakilis, who is preparing for Quins’ home match against Bath in the Premiership on Friday.

He has yet to complete a full game for his new club, having started as a replacement against London Irish in the opening fixture of the season, before being injured in the 13th minute against Gloucester.

After the Newcastle game, he has now clocked up 46 minutes as a Quins player. However, given what he has been through, Catrakilis is just delighted to be back on the pitch. “I have received incredible support from my wife, family and everyone at the club,” said Catrakilis (left, in action against Newcastle), who admits there were psychological hurdles to clear after he was finally given the all clear to play following nearly six months out of the sport he loves.

He said: “When I was injured I tried to find anyone who had suffered a similar injury and couldn’t find anything. Even world-renowned doctors who deal with thousands of throats had never seen anything like it. I needed specialist help and had three doctors — one doing the operation, one dealing with the airway and another my speech — and worked with them every week.

“It wasn’t certain that I would be able to play again and once they worked out why the throat had swollen up so much, it was a question of would I, in the future, be able to breathe well enough and speak to play sport.

“A piece of cartilage was cleared away and then the throat naturally healed and I can breathe well enough to run around. I still work with a speech therapist, having not been able to say much for a week after the injury.

“My voice remained very low for three months and just like singers, it is about getting the voice to be stronger.

“It was very difficult to breathe for two hours after the injury. I had to hold on until I got to hospital.”

Having made his comeback, Catrakilis wants to help Quins out of their current malaise which has seen them drop to ninth in the Premiership. “Playing is so special and now it is about getting the club up the table,” he said.

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