Cheikhou Kouyaté has retired from professional football at 36 after saying he played through a congenital heart problem that he hid for years, even from his family and Senegal’s national team doctors. He says the issue was picked up again in medical checks at Anderlecht, which led the Belgian club’s doctor to tell him to stop. The story also reaches back through medical examinations at West Ham, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.

Anderlecht's medical checks

Kouyaté told A Bola, in comments translated from Portuguese, that the problem had been there from birth and that he kept playing despite repeated warnings. "I have suffered from this heart problem since birth. I played with it," he said. He also said that in England he was monitored every six months and that he signed insurance papers accepting responsibility for anything that might happen.

The key detail is what ended the comeback attempt. Kouyaté said Anderlecht’s medical examinations brought the issue back into focus, and the club’s doctor asked him to stop playing football. He had been without a club since leaving the Turkish side Amedspor in January, and Anderlecht had wanted him back in the summer to begin training as a coach before the medical tests changed that plan.

The burden behind the career

The scale of the career still matters here. Kouyaté made almost 300 Premier League appearances and earned 92 caps for Senegal, which gives some sense of how long he managed the problem before the retirement call came at 36.

He said the pain was worst at high altitude and in hot weather, when it would hurt during and after matches and leave painful cramps for about 24 hours. He added that he never told his family or the national team doctors. That part of the story is hard to separate from the rest, because it shows just how much he carried without letting it become public while he was still playing.

The retirement closes the door on a career that stretched across England and into Belgium, with Anderlecht now the club that forced the final decision. What stands out most is not just the length of the career, but that the medical issue was hidden until the end.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →