Palmeiras keeper Natascha Honegger on misdiagnosis ordeal and Leila-inspired management studies | OneFootball

Palmeiras goalkeeper Natascha Honegger has revealed how a faulty pre-season heart test in 2022 left her fearing sudden death and sidelined for four months. According to Globo.com, routine screening in São Paulo wrongly suggested Long QT syndrome, and she was withdrawn from Corinthians duty.

She told no one at home, trained in secret and resolved she would keep playing. Four months later specialists cleared her, the clinic’s result was dismissed as an error, and checks for 40 conditions found nothing.

Seeking a reset, she joined Flamengo on loan in 2022 after the all-clear, a moment she describes as life changing, even posing with the clearance paper like a trophy.

She has since won the 2022 Copa América and the 2024 Paulista. At Palmeiras since 2024, she is finishing rehab from a May last year knee injury, rupturing the ACL, MCL and meniscus while playing for club and country.

Across a decade-long career she has represented four clubs in Switzerland, Paris FC in France, Corinthians, Flamengo and now Palmeiras. Raised in Switzerland, she holds Brazilian and Swiss nationality, started work at 15 and earned an accounting qualification at 18.

Off the pitch she studies economics with a focus on sports management at a Swiss online college and wants a future in administration. She cites president Leila Pereira as an inspiration for firm, long-term decisions, and aims to return, regain rhythm and target the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

Source: Globo.com