"I couldn't get myself to leave basketball at 32," Achille Polonara says in a touching interview that unveils the player's battle with testicular cancer.
On October 6, 2023, Achille Polonara received an email from the anti-doping prosecutor for some unusual signs in his latest blood tests.
It was then that he discovered he had a testicular tumor. In a touching interview carried out by Lega Basket Serie A and La Giornata Tipo, the forward of Virtus Segafredo Bologna recounts the stages he went through that forced him to quit basketball for a while, the chemotherapy treatment, the relationship with his family and the subsequent return to the court.
"After taking my daughter to bed, the mail from the Anti-Doping Prosecutor arrived, which had never happened to me. I started browsing the Internet and I found an article that talked about Francesco Acerbi (editor's note: Inter Milan's football player), who had the same thing," Polonara said.
Achille Polonara
| Team: |
Virtus Segafredo Bologna |
| Position: | PF |
| Age: | 32 |
| Height: | 203 cm |
| Weight: | 93 kg |
| Birth place: | Italy |
"I was sure I hadn't tested positive for doping, but also worried because I thought my body wanted to tell me something. The following day I went with Diego Rizzo (doctor of Virtus Bologna) to a urologist, I asked him a slew of questions, and I told him about the neoplasia of Acerbi. He said, 'Yes, yes, but as you saw, he's back.'
He did it as if to tell me that, according to him, I was not in danger of losing my life," the Italian international remembered.
Polonara, 32, also recalled that after Virtus' game against Varese, coach Luca Banchi entered the dressing room and began the post-match speech saying, 'Unfortunately, Achille must stop due to a testicular tumor.'
"The whole team stood immediately close to me since no one knew anything. My wife tried to minimize things by telling me to calm down because it was nothing serious, but I knew she was hurting too and that she had to do everything to make sure that my daughter did not take it badly," Polonara confessed.
The athlete describes his chemo as "tough," as it included him being stuffed with fluids seven hours a day.
"I must have taken 5 kilos," he said. "When I started practicing again, I did my abs and I felt dead; it felt like a train had run me over."
Polonara admitted that he did have some bad thoughts, albeit not life-related, but rather in terms of his basketball career.
"I couldn't have accepted leaving basketball at 32. It would have been too much of a disappointment. You understand a lot when things like that happen to you," he concluded.
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