Thursday December 30th 2021
“Will we never forget”
When the Bavarians feared for Zipser’s life
In June, Paul Zipser went to treatment for balance disorders, followed by a shock diagnosis: a bleeding brain tumor on the brain stem. Instead of the ball, the basketball player fights for his life. Bayern managing director Marco Pesic looks back on one of the “most difficult moments”.
The drama about basketball national player Paul Zipser was “one of the most difficult moments” of his life for Marko Pesic, managing director of Bayern. “We will all never forget that. But I was sure that he would make it, if only the serious intervention would be successful,” said Pesic of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
The 27-year-old Zipser had a hemorrhagic brain tumor on the brain stem in the middle of the semi-final series against the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in June. He had been examined for balance problems. The former NBA professional then had to undergo a complicated head operation, family and club feared for his life.
“That was a shitty place on the ear, on the cerebellum. A congenital malformation,” said Zipser in the Bavaria podcast “Open Court”. “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.
“I actually saw it as impossible to go to the first final in Berlin and play on the day of my brain surgery,” said 45-year-old Pesic looking back. “The main thing was to stand together and accompany Paul and his family with the doctors so as not to waste a minute.” He didn’t sleep the evening before the operation. “I kept thinking about what was going through Paul’s head. I think I would have gone nuts if I were him.”
Zipser suffered a pulmonary embolism during the operation and was in the intensive care unit. After that, he struggled through rehab for weeks. When Pesic visited his professional there, he was “for the first time really aware of what he was struggling with,” the Bayern managing director told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “He could no longer walk alone. To see him now in his individual training, how he struggles, that makes us all happy.” Zipser can’t play again yet, “but it’s only a matter of time now,” he said at “Open Court”.