Ngane Punivai crouched, desperately trying to suck back the oxygen his exhausted body craved during a game stoppage.
The 23-year-old Highlander glanced at the scoreboard at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Barely six minutes into their Super Rugby game against the Blues in Dunedin had been played.
The problem was that Punivai felt like he had played 70 minutes and didn’t know how much longer he could go on.
“Every break where I coughed, I just really struggled,” recalls Punivai.
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Diagnosed with long-term Covid a few weeks later, and taking advantage of the benefit afterwards, he wished he’d never made it through.
More than three months later, Punivai has not played since the Highlanders’ 32-25 loss on March 26.
He has also not fully trained as the only Kiwi Super Rugby player understood that Covid will continue to fight for a long time to regain his fitness.
“That’s the most frustrating thing,” Punivai said. “There isn’t much research, we don’t know much about long Covid.
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Ngane Puivai, centre, moved south to the Highlanders in 2020 after one season with the Crusaders.
“I was told it was just a wait and see game. I need to rest. I can be sweet in a week, it could be a few months, it could be a year. That was very difficult, not knowing when I would be back on the field.”
Along with the majority of the Highlanders, Punivai contracted Covid-19 in mid-March, delaying their round five match against Moana Pasifika.
Punivai, who likened it to a mild cold, didn’t get knocked out. I spent the week at home, before returning to Highlanders HQ the following week.
After navigating the protocols for returning to play, Punivai was named on the right wing to play against the Blues.
But Punivai made the decision he later regretted to go through with it.
“I didn’t feel good in the warm-up. But at that stage of the season we hadn’t won a game yet. I just wanted to push through because we still had a lot of guys with Covid. We didn’t have much cover.”
Punivai, who had told the medical team he was “in a hole” after the Blues scored a first-half try, held it until halftime before stopping.
“As soon as I got off and sat on the couch, I shivered. Everyone else didn’t need the jackets because it was warm [Saturday afternoon]†
Punivai didn’t suspect Covid for long. He took a week off and rested, thinking it would be good to go the next week.
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Ngane Punivai, pictured during a Highlanders home game against the Crusaders in Dunedin last year.
He soon realized that wouldn’t be the case, after a 25-minute bike and gym session knocked him out.
“I would go home and sleep for a few hours because I was totally exhausted, which is not normal for me. I don’t sleep during the day.”
Eager to get to the bottom of it, the Highlanders medical team asked Punivai to run a few miles on a treadmill and check his heart rate.
“It was like running a marathon when I only ran a few miles.”
Punivai was sent to a cardiologist, got an ultrasound of his heart and did an EKG test on the treadmill to check his heart’s rhythm and electrical activity.
No abnormalities were found.
“The only thing they couldn’t explain was how high my heart rate got during exercise and how long it took me to come back down after I finished.
“It was after that that I was officially diagnosed with long Covid.”
Off-contract with the Highlanders at the end of the 2022 season, as he was indefinitely sidelined meant he couldn’t raise his hand for a new contract.
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Ngane Punivai has been playing for Canterbury since 2017.
“It was tough. It’s tough,” he said.
After three seasons with the Highlanders, Punivai is back in Christchurch and hesitating when he will get the chance to show Super Rugby franchises that he is ready to go.
The old boy from Christ’s College has gradually increased his training load and is able to handle 15 minutes on the treadmill from struggling for five minutes to jogging.
“That is a big step in the right direction for me. That was just last week… I’m definitely getting better.’
Punivai has also started lifting heavier weights more regularly and notices that he gets less exhausted after exercising.
He will be on deck at Christchurch’s Rugby Park in a fortnight when Canterbury’s NPC squad gears up for the season, and is optimistic he’ll be donning the red and black jersey sometime this year.
That said, Punivai is quick to point out that he’s not setting the bar too high, not after his ongoing ordeal has hammered home the fact that his health is more important than rugby, prompting him to speak out in an effort to raise awareness around long Covid increase .
“I just think it’s important that people understand that Covid has been around for a long time and it affects everyone differently. I’m lucky to have the medical support I need to explain to my bosses, the coaches, that I have this, and I can’t play because of it.
“Some people who might have a desk job or something, might not understand as much because they don’t have the same support and medical support as I do.
“It’s real, it’s out there and it affects everyone differently.”