Medical expert raises questions on national cyclist's medical condition

Dr Cheema said that nothing was carried out despite complaints of several major heart-related symptoms by the cyclist.

"Because at your level, a high performance athletet, having complaints that are typical symptoms like feel sleepy, pain (in the chest) are quite typical symptoms, no one even went to the next step," he commented during a virtual press conference regarding Mohd Azizulhasni's health situation, today.

Mohd Azizulhasni, 34, announced that he is currently recovering after undergoing open heart surgery for a rare heart condition known as anomalous aortic origin of right coronary artery (AAORCA) at the Epworth Richmond Hospital, Melbourne on April 21.

The life-threatening condition brings the risk of cardiac arrest and sudden death if not treated with a corrective surgery immediately.

Meanwhile, Mohd Azizulhasni explained that his rare condition could only be identified with sophisticated tests, and that his earlier electrocardiogram (ECG), echocardiogram and CT coronary angiogram examinations failed detect the condition.

"I was very lucky that at the later part I did an MRI that detected the issue. I was very healthy, didn't have any health issues, I was competing and training, but I just had discomfort in my chest, so I thought it's a normal thing as an athlete because we are dealing with high level training.

"I would like to advise everyone, whether an average person or an athlete, we all need to do full screening to ensure we don't have any other issue. I think it is very important for now on for all athletes to do full screening to ensure they don't have all this rare situation because we never know," he added.

In the meantime, the Olympian's social media channel was flooded with messages from fans and well-wishers.

During last year's Aidilfitri celebration, the Malaysian sports fraternity was shocked by the sudden death of national archer Haziq Kamaruddin.

The Health Ministry said a post-mortem revealed that Haziq died of complications arising from clogged heart blood vessels due to coronary artery atherosclerosis.