French prop Hassane Kolingar suffered a cardiac arrest after taking snus, the rugby union star has revealed.
Kolingar lifted the lid on his terrifying ordeal after using the tobacco product.
Kolingar took snus whilst attending teammate Ibrahim Diallo’s wedding, but was left requiring hospital treatment.
Snus is usually placed behind the upper lip either in loose form or in sachets and is known to calm users down.
The product is seen as an alternative to smoking and vaping as it is less harmful to the body, however, it still contains nicotine.
Recalling his experience using the product, Kolingar told Midi Olympique, per The Sun: “When I got there [to the wedding], I stuck a snus against my gum and sat down while waiting for the bride and groom.
“It’s not illegal – there’s tobacco in it but it’s real s***, I think. At one point, I burst out laughing and immediately felt pressure in my chest.
“My heart was beating really hard and I was sweating a lot; seeing stars.
“I thought I was just having a hypoglycaemic episode and, so I would not ruin the ceremony, I moved aside.
“My eardrums were banging, I felt like someone was sticking needles in my head.
“I was in pain, really bad pain and my eyes were rolling back. I was going into cardiac arrest.”
The 26-year-old suffered tachycardia, which occurs when the heart rate increases.
As a result, Kolingar needed an operation in hospital to clean a scar on his heart.
He added: “Because my pulse wouldn’t go down, the firefighters put me into a coma. To wake me up, they shocked me four times.
“The purpose of the operation was to clean the scar I had on my heart since birth.
“To do that, [the surgeon] had to trigger a new cardiac arrest.”
Kolingar has since recovered from the cardiac arrest and returned to action with Racing 92.
He made his comeback last week as his side drew with Lyon before also starting Saturday’s Top 14 loss to Toulon.