Glasgow Warriors' new signing Jack Singleton tells his heart attack story - 'I'm in much safer spot'

But the England international hooker is hoping to return with Glasgow Warriors after signing a short-term deal with Franco Smith’s side.

Singleton, now 30, was with Gloucester when he started to feel unwell in September last year. His chest felt tight but it didn’t feel too different to anything he had experienced before. He had lunch and attended a team meeting after training and was about to drive home for a rest before a round of golf.

But a throbbing in his arm had started to get a lot worse and he began to feel dizzy and sweaty. He went to see the club doctor and a physio duly drove him to the hospital.

There his world was turned upside down. Happily, the diagnosis and treatment means he is now in a place where he is close to making his return to the sport in which he represented his country at the Rugby World Cup. There were days when that didn’t seem possible.

Taking advice from the top cardiologists

“Especially early on, there was a lot of uncertainty,” said Singleton, who has also played for Worcester, Saracens and Toulon. “But I mean, for the last eight, nine months, I've had pretty clear intentions of trying to come back and play again.

“There were definitely some doubts along the way, but I've had a great team around me, helping me at Gloucester and at St George's Hospital to get me through those first 12 months of it.

“It was always up to me. There was never any sort of ‘we recommend against it’ or anything like that. It was – ‘what do you want to do?’ And I told them I wanted to play again and they said they'll do everything they can to make that possible. And that's from some of the top cardiologists. So it was always pretty positive around trying to come back and play.

“I mean, it was a hereditary condition that we didn't know about. And since the operations and procedures that I've had, and the drugs that I'm now taking, everything's more under control. So I'm in a much safer spot than I was 16 months ago when I was playing.”

Having undergone an angiogram, Singleton had stents and balloons inserted to help open up his arteries. “That was in September [2025] and the follow up in December,” he explained.

Singleton lost his father to a heart attack when he was 13 but the family remained unaware of the underlying health condition. He admits it was difficult to initially get his head around what was happening.

‘There was a lot of denial’

“There was a lot of denial, probably, of like, ‘there's no way this is true’. But what can you do? I'm not going to stand there and say I've been dealt a poor hand or whatever and mope around. It's just ‘get on to the next thing’. And my next thing was, ‘right, how can I get back to playing?’”

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t as simple as returning from an injury. He was told at first that he should stop and had to contemplate the end of his career. But he says that proved to be “ill advised” and the medics have since supported his bid to return.

“I think there was an initial point in hospital where I was told that I probably wouldn't be allowed to play, and that was obviously ill-advised.

“We said we'll get the emergency stuff done and then we'll sit down with a cardiologist, a guy called Dr Papadakis, and then he was the one who said about being able to come back and play. But yeah, that thought [ending his rugby career] definitely crossed my mind. But I felt like I had a lot more to give and I didn't really feel ready to [quit].”

There remains a small blockage but he is checked rigorously and says he is in a much better position now than before he was diagnosed. “It's not an artery blocked, it's like a branch off an artery,” he said. “So there is still a small blockage. They were quite content with that being left as it was.”

Singleton’s last game was for Gloucester against Exeter in the Premiership Rugby Cup on September 12, 2025. He is not sure when he will be able to make his Glasgow Warriors debut but has joined the club initially until January to provide cover at hooker, particularly during the international windows. Glasgow expect both Gregor Hiddleston and Seb Stephen to be involved with Scotland in next month’s Nations Championship fixtures.

Very excited to be at Glasgow Warriors

“I feel good,” said Singleton. “Very excited to be here and just excited to be back out there training.

“I haven't got a target [for returning to playing]. I got here [on Monday], so I'm quite looking forward to just getting stuck into training and building up that proper rugby training again because that's something that I obviously haven't done for a little while.”

With internationals Johnny Matthews and Grant Stewart having left the Warriors in the summer, head coach Smith decided to move for Singleton to augment his squad which also includes younger hookers Tavi Tuipulotu, Joe Roberts and Angus Fraser.

Interestingly, Singleton is Scottish-qualified through two grandparents on either side of his family. He won the last of his three England caps at the 2019 World Cup so has completed the mandatory three-year stand-down period from international rugby and could switch allegiance. It is not something he is thinking about currently, with all his energies devoted to returning to play.

“To be honest, I'm more just worrying about training right now and then hopefully playing, and then we'll see what happens after. But yeah, I just want to get back out there, doing full training with the team, really.”

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