Exclusive: Minnesota Wild’s Marco Rossi on COVID-19 complications, ‘I’m just happy that I’m still alive’
In a span of three weeks earlier this year, Marco Rossi guesses that he had more doctor’s appointments in Minnesota than he had in his entire life combined.
There continues to be one absolutely terrifying comment that still reverberates around his head. As the Minnesota Wild’s 2020 first-round pick attempted to negotiate with experts that he should at least be allowed to exercise and skate a little bit rather than be completely shut down for two months, it was explained bluntly to the teenage hockey star just how serious his medical diagnosis was.
“The doctors told me if I played one more game in the World Junior Championship, this could have ended completely different,” Rossi said Tuesday, his voice still quavering from the memory of how close he may have been to a tragic ending. “I’m thankful to God that he supported me. … I’m just happy that I’m still alive.”
In January, the 19-year-old was on the verge of his first Wild training camp and NHL debut. That’s when complications from having COVID-19 in November interrupted his bright, up-and-coming hockey career and doctors would not clear him to play after a failed cardiac screening. During an exclusive interview Tuesday by phone with The Athletic, Rossi revealed that the exact diagnosis was myocarditis, a broad term that essentially means inflammation of the heart.
Knowing Rossi was devastated by the realization that he was that close to potentially having his heart stop on the ice, Wild general manager Bill Guerin sent Rossi home to Austria to be with his parents.
Rossi was petrified. Anytime he was alone, he worried his heart was going to stop. After returning home to Austria, Rossi lived with his parents and each night begged his mother, Claudia, and father, Michael, to sleep in his room.
“Every time before I went to sleep, I was so scared that I won’t wake up anymore,” Rossi said. “Every night, before sleep, I was really sad and always crying because I was scared of that. I told my parents, ‘Could you sleep right next to my bed and be here ‘til I fall asleep?’ And every day I woke up in the morning, I was so glad that I woke up. It was really hard.”
Rossi received the same diagnosis as former Wild goalie Alex Stalock earlier this season, a complication of having COVID-19 during the offseason.
“We’re trying to focus on what is tomorrow and forgetting what is yesterday,” said Michael Rossi, Marco’s father who played hockey professionally for 20 years in Austria. “We’re looking always forward and Marco is very, very mentally strong. At the beginning, it was really hard for him to understand the situation. He was very scared about it. In the moment, he had the feeling that he could die and he was in panic.
“But I would say after a couple of days in Austria when he got back, he was feeling more comfortable every day. We had a lot of doctor appointments, and more and more you could see Marco getting healthy and right now he looks really, really good. His energy is back and he’s very strong.”
Doctors are confident Marco Rossi’s on the mend.
Last week, he had his latest series of tests and consultations in Austria. His blood work, agent Serge Payer said, came back perfect.
In mid-May, Rossi will have three days’ worth of tests. He’ll travel to Dornbirn, Austria, where Rossi said medical experts have examined several athletes who have returned to sports after being diagnosed with similar heart conditions. He’ll get further clarity from a cardiologist, then take an MRI, get a second opinion and finally a stress test and EKG.
If he’s given the all-clear, Rossi will be allowed to slowly begin training for next season with the Wild. Up until now, Rossi has only been allowed to go for short walks and do some non-strenuous mobility training. This hasn’t been easy for a self-described workout freak, a player largely regarded as one of the most NHL-ready, physically mature players in last fall’s draft.
With 39 goals and 120 points in 56 games last season for the Ottawa 67’s, Rossi became the first European in history to lead the OHL in scoring and the first European to lead the entire Canadian Hockey League in scoring since Alex Radulov (152 points) in 2005-06. Rossi led the OHL with 81 assists and a plus-69, and was the second European import in OHL history to be named MVP. His 2.14 points per game ranked second in the CHL behind No. 1 pick and New York Rangers forward Alexis Lafrenière (2.15), who played in the Quebec League for Rimouski.
“I’m used to training every day like really hard,” Rossi said. “For the first few days, it was really weird because I was just sitting on the couch watching movies. I was like shaking. I wanted to do something. That’s been the hardest part of this time.”
So, how did this all start?
After being drafted by the Wild in October, Rossi signed his three-year, entry-level contract a few weeks later. The Wild assigned him to the ZSC Lions in Zurich, Switzerland, to allow him to play hockey and ramp up for a potential Wild training camp in the winter. He played one game, registered an assist but was then diagnosed with COVID-19. He experienced mild symptoms, including lower back pain. By the time he was cleared and ready to return, three other players tested positive and the team was put into quarantine.
Still, during his comeback attempt with the Lions, Rossi said he was absolutely exhausted. He figured it was because he was so used to pushing his body to great lengths and his body must have been shellshocked from not being allowed to do anything during his 10-day COVID-19 quarantine.
With NHL training camps pushed back to January, the Wild assigned Rossi to the World Junior Championship in Edmonton, where he would captain Team Austria.
“My exhaustion (from Switzerland) always kept going. It didn’t stop. Like, it was never, ‘Now I’m back to 100 percent,’” Rossi said. “At the tournament, that was the highest point where I said, ‘OK, I can’t do it anymore. I’m so tired.’”
His dad wondered if his son just had jetlag. Following his dad’s instructions from Austria, Rossi asked his coach if he could take practices off. That’s when Rossi said his team and his teammates knew something had to be wrong because Rossi never takes a practice off.
“Everyone was like, ‘What’s wrong, Marco? You always go on the ice,’” Rossi said. “I said, ‘I can’t. I’m so tired.’ Everyone was shocked.”
The Austrians bowed out of the tournament in four disappointing games, and Rossi’s play, in hindsight, was clearly affected by his fatigue. Nevertheless, Rossi was so excited to fly from Edmonton to Minnesota.
“So motivated (for Wild training camp), I forgot everything, like my tiredness and everything,” Rossi said.
When he arrived in the Twin Cities, Rossi had to enter a mandatory NHL COVID-19 quarantine protocol. But on Day 2, the Wild gave him a pre-training camp physical. That night, Rossi got a call. The Wild doctors had found some alarming numbers in his bloodwork and wanted to do more tests.
Dr. Bill Morice, the president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories and chair of Lab Medicine and Pathology at the Rochester, Minn.-based hospital, explained there are four ways to diagnose myocarditis: Blood work can show an elevation of some of the enzymes specific to the heart muscle that can leak into the blood if there’s inflammation; EKG abnormalities; imaging, like an MRI; and a heart biopsy, which is the most definitive but not commonly done.
After follow-ups to the initial bloodwork, Rossi and the Wild got definitive news that he indeed had myocarditis.
“Yeah, it was a really crazy time. I was really sad and scared,” Rossi said.
Morice hasn’t cared for Rossi, but he confirmed how serious myocarditis can be.
“Think of myocarditis almost like a rash,” Morice said. “If you have a rash on your skin, it doesn’t cause permanent damage to your skin, but it’s irritating. And what happens is that in the heart, what that can lead to is electrical abnormalities because the electrical signal has to pass through the heart.
“So one of the concerns with myocarditis is sudden cardiac death from the inflammation causing electrical abnormality. It basically causes an abnormal heartbeat, which if it hits the heart just right, their heart can stop beating.”
Over the next three weeks, Rossi went from doctor to doctor. Luckily, he wasn’t alone. Rossi was living with Thomas Vanek, the former Gophers star and Wild forward who is arguably Austria’s most famous former hockey player.
“He helped me so much and I’m so thankful for everything he did,” Rossi said. “Like, he bought the medicine for me. He drove me to the hospitals. He did everything for me. I’m so thankful that he was there and that he helped me. I don’t want to imagine what would be if I would have been alone at the hotel or anywhere else.”
Rossi said he also got a lot of support from Stalock, who was also secretly going through his own struggles with a similar diagnosis. Stalock, who was plucked off waivers by the Edmonton Oilers, would pick Rossi up at Vanek’s house before every Wild home game and would try to lift Rossi’s spirits during their drives to the arena.
(1/2)
Ich glaub, ich bin sogar schon aufgesprungen.
