Gary Megson likes strong characters, although it is doubtful there is anyone in the Bolton Wanderers manager’s squad with quite the same spirit as his latest signing, Ivan Klasnic.
The Croatia striker joined Bolton on a season-long loan from Nantes on Tuesday, shortly before the close of the transfer window, the latest chapter in a life less ordinary. Klasnic, you see, is lucky to be alive, let alone playing football at the highest level and preparing to line up against England at Wembley on Wednesday.
Returning to action after a broken leg or torn ligament is one thing, playing again after two kidney transplants quite another, but Klasnic does not consider himself special — he merely wants his story to serve as a source of inspiration to others facing an uncertain future. “I want to be an example to others,” he said. “I want to show people, especially sportspeople, that they should never give in.
“I was the first [footballer] to play for a national team with a transplanted kidney, but I hope I am not the last. It is simple: you have to fight, you can’t allow the illness to be stronger than you.”
Born in Hamburg, Klasnic rejected international calls from Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina, from where his parents hail, to follow his heart and play for Croatia.
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While neither he nor his parents have lived there, Klasnic is an ethnic Croat, a point he made forcibly when explaining his decision at the time, although the irony that it was the same Croatian blood he took such pride in that would prove central to his subsequent health problems has never been lost on the player. Klasnic was one of the rising stars of Croatian football and a hugely influential figure at Werder Bremen when, in September 2005, a routine appendix operation revealed a rare kidney ailment.
The doctors told him his kidneys could probably be saved with drugs, but they were mistaken. By December the year after, he was suffering from renal failure and it became clear that he needed a transplant.
“It was a terrible blow when I heard the news,” he said. “But I believe it happened for a reason. God gave me that challenge, but he also gave me the tools to overcome it.”
Klasnic could have continued having dialysis three times a week while he waited indefinitely for a compatible kidney to become available, but careers in football are fleeting and, aged 26 and with time not on his side, his family stepped in.
On January 24, 2007 Sima, his mother, donated one of her kidneys. Five days later, on Klasnic’s 27th birthday, he was informed that his body had rejected it.
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Hope, though, was not lost and on March 13 Klasnic underwent a successful second operation at a clinic in Hanover, this time receiving a kidney from his father.
His recovery was not without its complications. Five months after the surgery, Bremen prevented him from training amid concerns that his body was unable to withstand intensive physical strain, but his refusal to accept defeat paid off.
In November that year he was selected to start for the German club in a Bundesliga match against Energie Cottbus, 11 long months since his previous appearance. “It was a proud moment,” Klasnic said.
Some scars remain — he is pursuing through the courts two Bremen doctors whom he believes were guilty of “gross mishandling” of his condition — but, otherwise, the player, who will make his debut for Bolton away to Portsmouth on September 19, is looking only to the future.
Lomu proves long-term outlook for renal failure has never been better
Analysis: Dr Mark Porter
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Ivan Klasnic is not the first recipient of a new kidney to return to top-level sport. Jonah Lomu, the former New Zealand wing, went into kidney failure in 2003, but was back playing rugby union within 18 months of his transplant. Lomu never rediscovered his form but his eventual retirement was more to do with shoulder and ankle injuries than his new kidney.
Although kidney failure is mostly a problem in older people with conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, it can strike anyone at any age. The most severe form is fatal within weeks unless the person has access to dialysis (an “artificial kidney”) or a suitable donor can be found for transplant.
Thanks to recent advances, the long-term outlook has never been better for people such as Klasnic and his new kidney should give him at least 20 years of normal service — and hopefully many more.
Essential anti-rejection medication may cause some side-effects — including weight gain and fatigue — and render him prone to infection. But as long as he avoids any direct injury to the transplanted kidney, which is usually placed in the front of the abdomen below the waistband, I see no reason why he can’t continue his career.
It will be harder for him than his peers, but he seems a determined man and rough though football can be, it’s still not a patch on rugby. Lomu did it, so why not Klasnic?