Ohio State tight end Zak Herbstreit, who was hospitalized last week with what was later revealed to be a heart issue, was released on Wednesday but faces a “long process” in his recovery.
During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday, Zak’s father, Kirk Herbstreit, said that Zak experienced a “setback” last Friday that had kept him in the hospital with a heart issue, but he has since returned home to begin his recovery.
“We brought him home yesterday, which is great, but it’s not like, normally you get out of the hospital and you’re cured and everything’s good,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “He’s in good spirits, he’s home with us, where his mom can take really good care of him.
“This is just going to be a long process to kind of see how his heart responds to some of the medications that he’s on,” he continued. “This is a three- or four-month kind of thing to kind of see how it recovers.”
Zak Herbstreit was initially diagnosed with pneumonia, with doctors believing that he had fluid in his lungs, but an echocardiogram showed issues when scanning his heart that the elder Herbstreit said “came out of nowhere.”
“He was originally diagnosed with pneumonia because they thought he had some fluid in his lungs,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “But that turned out not to be the case at all. He had very few symptoms. You would never know that he was dealing with what he’s dealing with.”
Zak Herbstreit was entering his third season with the program, joining Ohio State in 2021 as a preferred walk-on out of Nashville (Tenn.) Montgomery Bell Academy. He has appeared in three games during his career with the Buckeyes.
