{"id":488915,"date":"2026-01-28T20:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=488915"},"modified":"2026-01-29T01:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:23:08","slug":"test-prop-retires-at-35-after-cardiac-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=488915","title":{"rendered":"Test prop retires at 35 after &#039;cardiac incident&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>France international tighthead prop Uini Atonio has suffered a cardiac incident and has been forced to call time on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/rugby\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"rugby\">rugby<\/a> career, his club La Rochelle said, adding the player remains in hospital.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Uini Atonio was admitted to La Rochelle hospital yesterday following suspected heart problems,&quot; the Top 14 side said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Medical tests confirmed a cardiac incident. His condition is now stable and he remains under observation in intensive care.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/tennis\/australian-open-2026-jannik-sinner-fitness-injury-ben-shelton-result-video-highlights-quarter-final-20260128-p5nxtr.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Sinner defies &#x27;odds&#x27; to set up Djokovic showdown\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Sinner defies &#x27;odds&#x27; to set up Djokovic showdown<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/combat-sports\/ufc-news-2026-robert-whittaker-exclusive-interview-return-fight-break-family-white-house-card-career-future-20260127-p5nxlg.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Aussie opens up on UFC future as White House rumour lingers\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Aussie opens up on UFC future as White House rumour lingers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/rugby\/super-pacific-2026-nsw-waratahs-news-dan-mckellar-sam-scott-young-miles-amatosero-angus-crichton-20260128-p5nxqr.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Waratahs coach breaks silence on wild pre-season brawl\"><strong>Waratahs coach breaks silence on wild pre-season brawl\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Following his hospitalisation, Uini will need to undergo a long period of convalescence.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It is now clear that he will not be able to continue his playing career.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"eaba3dc6-7cfb-4e1c-a5ba-e341a2322405\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/eaba3dc6-7cfb-4e1c-a5ba-e341a2322405\" alt=\"French player Uini Atonio at a training session.\" data-width=\"4469\" data-height=\"2514\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old prop had been initially called up last week by France coach Fabien Galthie to prepare for the Six Nations opener against Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>However, the French Rugby Federation announced on Monday that Atonio was out for the match, without specifying the reason.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season with every match streaming live and on demand<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/play.stan.com.au\/sport\/world-rugby-sevens\"><em><strong>on the home of rugby, Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Atonio, who earned 68 caps with Les Bleus, won the Six Nations title in 2022, including the Grand Slam, and in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The New Zealand-born prop was instrumental in La Rochelle&#x27;s back-to-back Champions Cup triumphs in 2022 and 2023, further cementing his legacy at the club he has been playing for since 2011.<\/p>\n<p>He last appeared for La Rochelle in a Champions Cup fixture against Harlequins on January 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>France international tighthead prop Uini Atonio has suffered a cardiac incident and has been forced to call time on his rugby career, his club La <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=488915\" title=\"Test prop retires at 35 after &#039;cardiac incident&#039;\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":488917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=488915"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488918,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488915\/revisions\/488918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/488917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=488915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=488915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=488915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}