After brain surgery and pulmonary embolism: Paul Zipser returns to public life

After brain surgery and pulmonary embolism
Paul Zipser returns to public life

“Basketball has gotten smaller for me,” says Paul Zipser, who is coming back to the public for the first time after his major brain surgery in the summer. The national basketball player also suffered a pulmonary embolism. And now is just happy to be able to work on his comeback.

In the midst of an annual general meeting full of quarrels and tinder, a basketball player at Bayern Munich ensured a united pre-Christmas mood. When Paul Zipser carried the DBB-Pokal to his usual venue at the trophy parade, an auditorium, divided at least in terms of football, stood closed and moved together – the national player’s first major public appearance after his severe brain surgery temporarily pushed everything else into the background.

“Your comeback here in the Audi Dome is worth more than any title,” said Bayern President Herbert Hainer in the direction of the 27-year-old. Zipser had disappeared from the scene for months, and he and the club had largely remained silent about his situation.

Optimal conditions for survival

“Now is the time when I feel so good that I want to talk about it,” Zipser told the Bayern podcast “Open Court”, where he described the seriousness of the situation after he had sought medical treatment for balance problems at the beginning of June would have. The diagnosis – a blood-borne brain tumor on the brain stem – required a delicate procedure. “That was a shitty place on the ear, on the cerebellum. A congenital malformation. There are simply several centers in the brain that are responsible for different things. For me it was the coordination, the whole right side was very affected from the start “said Zipser.

He was a little afraid of the operation. “But I knew that I had the perfect framework. A healthy athlete in his prime – if anyone can survive something like that, then I have the ideal conditions,” said Zipser. Still, the return to life was tough. After the operation Zipser suffered a pulmonary embolism, was in the intensive care unit and struggled through rehab for weeks. But he “never believed in it, not even now, everything could not come back 100 percent”.

There is still no precise plan for a comeback in the Bayern shirt, “but it is only a matter of time now,” said Zipser. He did not want to put pressure on himself after what was probably the most formative summer of his life: “Basketball has definitely gotten smaller for me.”

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