Caroline Graham Hansen reveals she 'didn't have a life anymore' before heart surgery

Caroline Graham Hansen has admitted getting the initial diagnosis that she would require heart surgery elicited more relief than fear, as it gave her an explanation for how physically drained she was feeling.

The Barcelona winger underwent successful treatment for a heart condition in November 2021 after experiencing a high heart rate and chest discomfort while playing for her club.

Graham Hansen announced in August that she would be taking a step back from the Norway national team for an unspecified period of time to enable her to rest and recover from the fatigue caused by her heart problem.

"It was a relief to know how I'd been feeling for a while hadn't been me being in bad shape," Graham Hanson told Their Pitch podcast. "And I was like: I can't play like this, it's impossible to play like this. I didn't even have a life anymore. Every morning I barely came out of bed, I never had enough sleep and I was sleeping a lot, laying on the sofa the rest of the day. I didn't really have a life anymore.

"Before I was able to do extra stuff in my life and now it's like I'm old? I don't know. Or are we training that hard that I can't handle it? For me it was nice to have a solution to the problem. Sounds very scary but I had good people around me reassuring me that it would be fine and it would only help me."

Graham Hanson - who is currently sidelined with a thigh injury - gave no timeframe for her potential return to the national side, having not played for Norway since Euro 2022. In her statement announcing her break from international duty in August, she labelled it 'not a "thank you for everything" but a "see you soon".'

"For me is was sadly easy," Graham Hansen said of her decision to take a break from the national team. "Because I was so tired and so frustrated that I was not able to recover the way I wanted to and it was time for me to focus on me for once and take care of what I needed to take care of.

"For me personally I gave everything I had during the Euros even though it wasn't enough which is very sad - but that's life sometimes. I felt like it was time for me to take a breath and use this half year to focus on me.

"I just needed to focus on myself. Maybe it sounds selfish, but I'm not a selfish person. I believe if you want the best out of me, if I'm not able to give the best to myself, I'm not able to do it for other people either. So I needed to just choose me for once."