Sebastien Chabal has revealed he suffered a heart attack while driving on a motorway – and ended up driving himself to hospital.
The former France and Sale Sharks star suffered the health scare in 2025, but the story largely went under the radar in the UK.
Chabal opened up about what happened during an appearance on former France prop Romain Magellan's Face à la Toilepodcast earlier this year.
The 48-year-old was travelling between Lyon and Avignon for work when he first started feeling pain.
At first, he thought it was linked to his neck. But as the pain got worse, Chabal began to realise something was seriously wrong.
“I always knew I was going to have at least one heart attack,” he said.
“I had a family history and I roughly knew the signs of a heart attack.”
Chabal eventually pulled into a motorway service station, where the seriousness of the situation became clear.
Instead of calling an ambulance, though, he got back behind the wheel and drove himself to hospital in Valence.
Recalling the moment he walked into A&E, Chabal said: “Hello, I think I'm having a heart attack.”
He was right.
Doctors confirmed Chabal had suffered a heart attack and fitted a stent. Thankfully, it was caught quickly enough that he said there was no lasting damage to his heart.
Chabal tells the full story in the Face à la Toile interview, while French newspaper La Dépêche also reported his account of the incident.
Chabal's memory problems
It follows another worrying admission from the France legend about his health.
Chabal previously revealed he remembers virtually nothing from his rugby career.
“I don't remember a single second of a rugby match I've played,” he admitted.
It's not just matches that have disappeared from his memory either.
Chabal has said he struggles to remember significant moments away from rugby, including the birth of his daughter.
RUCK previously covered Chabal's concerning admission about his memory loss.
Despite that, Chabal has stressed that he feels well and that the memory problems don't impact his everyday life.
“My daily life isn't affected by it. I'm fine,” he told Le Monde.
The former number eight has undergone medical examinations but said he doesn't plan to make the results public unless doctors find something which could help others.
Chabal won 62 caps for France between 2000 and 2011 and became a huge fan favourite during his five seasons with Sale Sharks.
He helped Sale win the Premiership title in 2006 before returning to France with Racing Métro three years later.
This feels much closer to your usual RUCK rhythm: short paragraphs, fewer filler transitions, quotes doing the work and the key detail right at the top.
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5 quirky facts about Sebastien Chabal
1. He worked in a factory before becoming a rugby star
Long before he became one of the most recognisable players in world rugby, Sebastien Chabal had a very different day job.
The Frenchman trained as a mechanic and worked as a milling machine operator in a factory, with rugby initially something he played alongside his normal working life.
His remarkable journey from factory worker to France international is detailed on Chabal's official website.
2. His famous beard happened almost by accident
Chabal's long hair and enormous beard became his trademark, but the look wasn't originally a carefully planned image.
After moving to England to play for Sale Sharks, Sebastien Chabal struggled with the language and wasn't particularly comfortable visiting the hairdresser.
As he later explained in an interview with Le Monde, he simply allowed his hair to grow — while shaving every morning wasn't high on his list of priorities either.
The result was one of rugby's most iconic looks.
3. The giant forward drove a tiny Smart car
Standing around 6ft 3in and weighing well over 100kg, Chabal wasn't exactly the obvious choice to squeeze behind the wheel of a Smart car.
But that's precisely what he did.
During the 2007 Rugby World Cup, ABC reported on the unlikely combination, with his enormous frame and tiny car becoming another part of the Chabal legend.
4. 'Caveman' was far from his only nickname
Most rugby supporters will remember Sebastien Chabal as “The Caveman”, but that was just one of a remarkable collection of nicknames he picked up during his career.
He was also dubbed The French Beast, Attila, The Anaesthetist and Cartouche.
During his time with Sale Sharks, his English teammates came up with something slightly less intimidating — “Sea Bass”, a play on Sébastien.
5. He became involved in the wine business
Life after rugby took Chabal in some unexpected directions.
After hanging up his boots, the former France international attended EM Lyon Business School and became involved in a number of business ventures.
That included entering the world of wine, with Chabal adding entrepreneur and wine grower to a CV that already included factory worker and international rugby star.
