TEN-TIME Wimbledon doubles champion Todd Woodbridge suffered a shock heart attack aged 51.
The Aussie described the incident as a “wake-up call” even for the fittest of middle-aged people and declared “it can happen to anybody”.
Woodbridge suffered a shock heart attack despite leading a healthy lifestyle
Woodbridge (right) and Mark Woodforde (left) holding their trophies after winning their Men’s Doubles final at the Wimbledon 2000
Woodbridge was exercising when he started to feel chest pains.
The ten-time Wimbledon doubles champ told the Herald: “It was last Thursday, I tried to keep my routine having travelled to the US Open and London and I was just exercising and had chest pains and every symptom when you look up Google – full sweats and I felt awful.
“I had a little heart episode that goes down as a mild heart attack which is a bit of a shock to me.
“I consider (I) lead a pretty good fit healthy lifestyle – I keep active, I eat well, I do all the right things, I enjoy doing that.
“It’s been a wake-up call to me to make sure I look after myself.
“If it can happen to me it shows that it can happen to anybody.”
At 51, Woodbridge is a year younger than Shane Warne when he had his fatal attack.
Days after Warne’s passing, another high profile Aussie athlete, former AFL star Dean Wallis, 52, suffered a major heart attack but survived following life-saving surgery.
WA cricket great Ryan Campbell, 50, survived a cardiac arrest in April.
And in May, West Coast Eagles premiership player Peter Matera, 53, suffered a heart attack while he was chopping wood on his property in Victoria.
Former Australian cricket coach Darren Lehman was saved by a triple bypass surgery after a heart attack in the early hours of his 50th birthday.
Woodbridge has called on people to get checked.
He continued: “I’ve hit that age now where I need to make sure that I have regular testing, get to the doctors.
“I’d urge anybody out there coming off the last couple of years (of lockdowns), where we’ve gone, nah I’m OK, haven’t been to doctors, haven’t had check ups, to ensure you get out there and do that.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to go and get all the tests and I’m OK. With good monitoring and a bit of mild medication moving forward, I’ll be fine.
“But what I did learn was how important hereditary genes are to your health and I am aware that both my mum and dad have had a few issues with needing some stents and my dad had very high cholesterol.
“If I take care of that I have the ability to be fine into the future. But if you don’t take care of that you are putting yourself at risk.
“My advice is don’t put off what you’ve been planning to do.
“Because I’d been planning to get my next bits of tests, we all lead a busy life and that becomes next month and then that becomes six months and you still haven’t done it and I was a bit guilty of that.
“The best part is I’m back up and running. I need to take it easy, I can’t do anything physical but I’m still able to do my general work.”
