Jack Singleton: Hooker on hopes of return to rugby union after heart attack

A year after suffering a heart attack, hooker Jack Singleton is hoping to return to full training next month to get his rugby union career back on track.

Singleton had played one Prem Cup game for Gloucester in September 2025, as the 2025-26 campaign was getting under way, when he had the heart attack aged 29 while training at the club.

"We're not really sure when it started but it wasn't like a scary moment for me, it was just a lot of symptoms or dizziness [and an] aching arm," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I didn't collapse or anything like that, so when people say you must have been so scared, it wasn't particularly scary - I just felt a bit under the weather to be honest."

Singleton has not played rugby since and after having tests in the weeks that followed, he was eventually diagnosed with a hereditary condition.

"My dad unfortunately passed away aged 56 of a heart attack so we think that's where it's been passed down from," he said.

"I have a condition called LPA which means my LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol was extremely elevated, which caused some narrowings and blockages in my arteries.

"Luckily we can treat that and I have been treated at Gloucester Royal and at St George's Hospital in London, but it's a hereditary condition that we didn't know anything about.

"Unfortunately with diet and exercise I can't do anything about that, it all has to be sort of managed through drugs."

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While there are high-profile cases of footballers returning to top-level sport after suffering cardiac incidents - Christian Eriksen, Daley Blind and Tom Lockyer to name three - in rugby, the cases are rarer.

Even more so when Singleton was looking for elite sportspeople who have been diagnosed with the same condition as him.

"During the last year, there was a lot of uncertainty around stuff and I probably went looking for a lot of things and didn't really find much," he said.

"But obviously seeing the likes of Christian Eriksen come back and play - I'm seeing the same cardiologists as them so you know they're the top of their profession. It's good to have those people on your side."

Singleton played 75 games for Gloucester after joining in 2020 and has been capped seven times by England, his most recent appearance for the national team coming in 2022.

But while he was out last season, he also knew that by June his club contract would be up.

"We had an ongoing conversation after the incident about what next season [2026-27] might look like and the club were pretty honest with me that they couldn't wait until sort of May-August time to figure out if I was going to be alright to come back and play," Singleton said.

"They'd have to go out and sign someone, which I completely understand. So I was never in the dark about what was going on at the club."

While Gloucester confirmed the recruitment of Wales hooker Dewi Lake in December for 2026-27, around the same time Singleton was speaking to cardiologists to find out if a return was even possible.

"The biggest thing was can I or will I be allowed?" he said.

"I feel like with the proper medical staff around, with the understanding I have now with the drugs I'm on and all the procedures that I've had, I'm in a much better place than I was prior to this time last year to be back in training and back playing again."

Seven months on, he is hoping he is near the end of that journey.

Singleton was given a rolling contract with Gloucester from June to allow him to continue rehabilitation at Kingsholm during the summer and hopes that in the next few weeks he will return to full contact training, although he will not be part of the Cherry and Whites' squad for the upcoming campaign.

It means he is on the hunt for another team to give him another opportunity.

"I'm not worrying about work outside of rugby or anything like that at the minute and if nothing comes up or a club doesn't want to take the risk, I'll cross that road when it comes to it," he said.

"But hopefully something does come up and I can give the best of myself to that team."