André Venter

André Gerhardus Venter (born 14 November 1970 in Vereeniging, South Africa) is a former South African rugby union footballer who earned 66 caps playing for the South Africa national team during the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s. He represented South Africa during the 1999 Rugby World Cup where they finished third.

A few years after his retirement he was diagnosed with a degenerative syndrome of the central nervous system, later revealed to be transverse myelitis, which causes damage to the spine, and forced him into a wheelchair. Later, his former Springbok teammate, Joost van der Westhuizen developed a degenerative nervous disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Provided by Wikipedia