USMNT star Antonee Robinson has revealed the heart issue that ruined his move to Italian giant AC Milan in January 2020 came down to drinking too much coffee.
Robinson was playing for English second tier team Wigan when Milan, led by legendary Italian defender Paolo Maldini, made a move to sign the USA left-back.
Maldini’s involvement thrilled Robinson – he played 126 times for Italy, winning the World Cup in 2006 and the Champions League five times with Milan.
But it was when Robinson was undergoing his medical in Italy that the heart issue was discovered and his dream move turned into a nightmare.
‘I was in hospital doing loads of tests and scans on my knees and back,’ Robinson told The Guardian. ‘They gave me a max exertion test on a Wattbike and were asking if I’d ever had any issues with my heart.
‘I said: “No” but then they sent me to another hospital to do another ECG and when they got the results they sent me to Milan’s headquarters. My agent’s there with Maldini and all the higher-ups of Milan and I’m expecting to sign my deal.
‘But they said: “We can’t do a deal because something’s flagged up with your heart”. It was deadline day and it would take a minimum of three days to find out the problem, so they couldn’t risk signing me.
‘They were all talking so much but I’m just sat there staring at the floor and thinking: “Of course it’s not happened.”
‘I was having ectopic heartbeats, which is basically an insufficient heartbeat. Up to 5% is OK but I was having double that. It was making my heart dilate, which means it was overworking and growing in size. It could have approached failure if it hadn’t been caught. So that [Milan] medical gave me the chance to catch something I didn’t even know I had.’
Robinson, now 25, returned to England and was set to undergo surgery but two months later, the country went into lockdown due to Covid-19, much like the rest of the world, and his appointment was delayed.
While he waited, Robinson was told to stop drinking coffee and when he finally was able to attend a hospital appointment, it had made a significant impact.
‘When they went to do the operation they didn’t see any more insufficient heartbeats,’ Robinson said.
‘They came to the conclusion that my heart’s sensitive to caffeine and I just needed to cut out coffee. Two weeks later I played my first game in six months against Huddersfield and it was a big relief.’
Robinson has gone from strength to strength since. He impressed at the World Cup for the United States as they reached the last-16 in Qatar before being beaten 3-1 by Holland. He has 33 caps to his name.
He has also been a regular for Fulham in the Premier League, one of the surprise teams of the season.
Robinson has played in 20 games for Fulham this season and the team is eighth in the Premier League standings – directly above London rival Chelsea and Liverpool.
He played the full 90 minutes as Fulham held Chelsea to a 0-0 tie on Friday and the next Premier League game is against Nottingham Forest on February 11.