Philip de Bruin

Pretoria - Rumours that ex-Bok Joost van der Westhuizen collapsed on Saturday night after he'd had too much to drink or "used something else", are completely untrue, claimed his spokesperson Bridget van Oerle on Thursday.

She said doctors had conducted tests and were able to confidently exclude "the use of any kind of drugs" during their tests.

Van der Westhuizen's private investigator in the so-called sex tape scandal, Mike Bolhuis, said there was no truth to speculation that substance abuse had played a role in his collapse.

Meanwhile Van der Westhuizen told a family friend - who preferred that his name not be published - that he didn’t have the "faintest idea" what had happened to him.

"When I opened my eyes I was lying in the hospital," Van der Westhuizen apparently said.

The family friend said Van der Westhuizen "sounded okay", although he was still having some trouble talking.

Van der Westhuizen had reportedly been saying he felt "uncomfortable" on Saturday night, while guests were visiting him and his wife, Amor Vittone, but that he had no clue what had led to his collapse. Only Vittone and the couple's family are allowed near him in hospital.

The results of tests done so far at Sunninghill hospital in Johannesburg are not yet known.

Thus there's still no certainty about what led to the collapse. Tests on the left half of his brain would be done on Tuesday night.

On Tuesday afternoon, Vittone would only confirm that Van der Westhuizen is still in hospital. She asked Beeld to phone later that night, since she was busy with the couple's children, but hasn't answered her cellphone since.

Van Oerle said although the tests on Van der Westhuizen were almost finished, "the only thing which can be said with certainty is that he had neither a heart attack nor a stroke."

She said he was "recovering more every day", and they might know by Wednesday whether he would be discharged.

On Tuesday afternoon Bolhuis said he was being inundated with phone calls, messages and SMS's from people who wanted to wish the Van der Westhuizen's well.