“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Day two, honestly, wallahi, I thought I wasn’t going to make it.”
Sonny Bill Williams has revealed he needed open-heart surgery after doctors found a defect he had carried since birth.
The former All Blacks centre went in for a routine heart check-up after his neck surgery earlier this year, and the Sonny Bill Williams heart surgery followed. He shared the whole journey in a 24-minute video on his YouTube channel on Friday 23 October.
Have you ever had your heart checked? Tell us in the comments.
“A perfectly healthy looking person dropping dead”
The problem was in his aortic valve. His surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Dr Michael O’Keefe, called it a bicuspid valve. He said about 2% of people have one, and most never know.
Williams said that was the scary part.
“If I didn’t go and get it checked, they wouldn’t know. And that’s a case of a perfectly healthy looking person dropping dead.”
He said doctors told him his heart measured 7.5cm. “It was about to pop,” he said.
His last words before surgery: “I’ve got five kids”
Williams and his wife, Alana, went out for dinner the night before. In the morning, before walking to the hospital, he rang his parents and asked them to forgive him for anything he had done wrong.
Alana spoke to the camera after saying goodbye. “A little bit daunting, but he’s so strong,” she said.
O’Keefe later reminded Williams of the last thing he said before he went under: “Hey bro, I’ve got five kids.”
The night he thought he would not make it
The second night was the worst.
He was alone, cold but sweating, in pain and hallucinating, from midnight until 5am.
“I honestly felt like I didn’t know if I was going to make it,” Williams said. “I was having hallucinations. I was like delirious.”
He also had a punctured lung. A week later he left hospital with about 42 different medications.
“You’ve been playing with a handicap”
The operation was a Ross procedure. Surgeons replaced his aortic valve with his own pulmonary valve, then gave him a donor valve in its place.
Because Williams is so big, O’Keefe also wrapped the valve in a synthetic graft, so he can “play sport again at a proper level”.
Williams asked him whether the defect had held his career back.
“Definitely,” O’Keefe said. “You’ve been playing with a handicap, which you hadn’t realised for a long time.”
Williams said that made sense. In his late 20s he trained as hard as ever but could not get as fit, especially for boxing.
He did all of it with a faulty valve: two Rugby World Cups with the All Blacks, two NRL premierships and a heavyweight boxing career.
“I’ve got a better heart”
The Sonny Bill Williams heart surgery was a success. “I’ve got a better heart than when I walked in here,” Williams said.
He went back to thank O’Keefe in person, calling him “the magic man”, and thanked Khabib Nurmagomedov and the Crown Prince of Johor for their support.
Now he wants one thing from everyone watching: get your heart checked.
Your turn: would you get checked?
Williams says the defect was found by chance. Would you book a heart check after watching this? Tell us below.
Sonny Bill Williams heart surgery: quick answers
What heart condition does Sonny Bill Williams have?
A bicuspid aortic valve he was born with. It was found during a routine check-up after his neck surgery in 2026.
Where did Sonny Bill Williams have heart surgery?
At the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where Dr Michael O’Keefe performed a Ross procedure.
Is Sonny Bill Williams OK?
Yes. He says the operation was a success and he is recovering at home with his family.
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