FORMER Newport Gwent Dragons favourite Rhys Thomas has revealed how he was just minutes away from death after suffering a heart attack while training with the Scarlets in January.

The 29-year-old, from Newport, yesterday exclusively told the Argus he has been forced to quit the game he loves on medical advice.

Thomas was also open about his future and the desire to still be involved in rugby once his improving health allows him to think about his career once again.

His life was saved by the actions of physiotherapists at the Scarlets, the rapid response of the ambulance service and staff at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital where he underwent bypass surgery.

The popular tighthead prop, who lives in Langstone, had been on an exercise bike at the gym in Parc y Scarlets when he realised something was badly wrong.

“I felt dizzy and this was followed shortly after by chest pains,” he said.

“I’d experienced similar pains when I had a mild heart attack in 2006 when I was with the Dragons.

“When I told the Scarlets physios I thought I was having a heart attack, they put an oxygen mask over me straight away, they gave me aspirin, lay me down and called for an ambulance.”

Thomas continued: “I think from when the ambulance arrived to when I had my angiogram (an X-ray photograph of blood vessels allowing doctors to look inside coronary arteries) it was something like ten minutes – really fast.

“I was having the angiogram and I was awake during this and things started going down hill quite fast.

“I thought I was going to die, I thought this was my time.

“I was rushed into theatre and they needed to do bypass surgery.”

On seeing his wife, Paula, all he could think of was that he hadn’t had the opportunity of being with his four children, Ashleigh, 17, Ethan, 13, Morgan, six and Kai, four, before he was going to die.

“As I was getting trollied through to theatre, I felt that I hadn’t said goodbye to the kids and I was really scared.

“And that was it – I can’t remember anything else until I woke up about two, two-and-a-half days later and I was so out of it. I can’t remember anything properly until about the fourth day and I just had tubes and wires coming out of me from every part of my body.

“It was all a bit surreal when I woke up and realised what had happened.

“But I was still here – I was just happy that I was still chugging along.”

The ending of his playing career has been very difficult to take for the South African-born front rower who won seven caps for Wales and took part in the Grand Slam triumph of 2008.

Although he is on the mend, the scars, both mental and physical, are still very much there.

“I can’t play rugby any more and that’s been hard to take,” he admitted.

“I’ve only ever played rugby and that’s all I’d ever wanted to do.

“For someone to tell you that you aren’t capable of doing it again, it has been hard.

“But for the first month, I was just coping with the incident itself because it was quite traumatic, my chest had been prised open to get to the heart and I was in a lot of pain.

“I had to sleep on my back and I couldn’t sleep for the first week after the operation because I was having anxiety attacks and nightmares.

“The doctors told me I wouldn’t play again or they advised against it.”

What does the future hold? “There’s no rush, getting myself right first and foremost I think,” Thomas said.

“I still get quite breathless when I do certain exercises and it doesn’t take a lot to tire me out. I’ve been told it’ll take about a year to get healthy again.

“I have to follow a good diet and keep everything in moderation and just look after myself.”

Thomas added: “I’d like to stay in rugby, I don’t care where or in what context. It’s all I’ve ever done or ever known.

“I don’t have anything else outside. Perhaps coaching, helping out young front rowers. There’s a number of things I might be able to do.”

Would he like a media career as a pundit? “If they ask me, I probably would,” he said, before he joked: “Or maybe as a team manager for a sevens side – that would be great!”