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Opinion
For those of you who don’t know who Brett Horsnell is, he was a very good footballer who last played in the NRL in 1998.
And unfortunately, his health is now seriously affected by what he believes to be football-related head injuries, specifically chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by multiple concussions.
Horsnell was always going to be a top-grade footballer. He was a product of one of the best rugby league nurseries in the world in Queensland’s Keebra Park High, he played in the junior Queensland teams at both the under-16 and under-18 level, and he captained the 1988 Australian Schoolboys team that included future internationals Brad Fittler, Tim Brasher and David Fairleigh.
He made his first-grade debut with the Gold Coast Seagulls in 1989, transferred to the South Queensland Crushers in 1995, and ended up at Parramatta in 1997 for a couple of seasons before retiring in 1998 at the age of 28.
In all, he played 154 first-grade games, in whatever position he was needed on the field, and he was a hard man known for his fearless running and tough tackling.
Horsnell’s health issues have been in the media many times since his retirement, and most recently the 51-year-old revealed that he is now being forced to part with his football jerseys and other memorabilia from his playing days in order to raise money, as the costs of fighting his medical condition have left him on the brink of financial ruin.
Horsnell was quoted as saying: “I’m just about done. I’ve spent everything. I’m living in a crappy unit. I’m just struggling. I can’t work… I just struggle to pay rent. I don’t have public housing. I’m paying normal rent. I pay normal bills like everyone else but I’m on a disability, which is not a lot of money.”
He has described his health issues as follows: “I get headaches, I can’t do running writing, I have vertigo so bad that I can’t shower because I would fall over… I’m losing the eyesight in one eye… I have depression big time, and short-term memory loss – every day I forget where I left my keys.”
He claims that his health issues stem from the over 50 concussions he claims to have suffered during his career.
He has been quoted as saying: “I remember getting hit on the wrong side of the head. I collapsed, got up, fell over, got up, collapsed, fell over, woke up in the dressing room with my family above me, woke up in the ambulance, getting a shot because my heart has stopped.
“Back then, you would be out cold on the grass, they would put smelling salts under your nose to wake you and say ‘Get back out there’.”
Horsnell’s story and current medical and financial plight are the elephant in the room in the world of contact sport, and not what anyone involved in the game of rugby league wants to hear.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
No coach, trainer or administrator wants to admit that they could be in any way culpable for a dire health outcome like this.
Yes, I hear you say, everyone knew the risk. It’s a contact sport. Medical knowledge wasn’t as good back in the day. Yadda yadda.
But anyone who has played the game knows that this went on every game and every week, and that players who were concussed were encouraged to get up, shake it off, and get back out there, time and time again.
Most players thought that they were indestructible, and never wanted to show any weakness or let their teammates down, but surely some of those outside the playing group had enough sense to see the damage being done.
Similarly, no player, whether currently playing the game or now retired, wants to look too closely at Brett Horsnell’s story for fear of seeing their own reflection.
Horsnell claims to have had over 50 concussions in his 154-game career, and while that seems an alarmingly high number, it’s more than possible, and equates to just one concussion every third game.
Often, players can receive multiple concussions in the same game. Players past and present will be thinking about their own experience, how many concussions they’ve had and wondering just how many concussions you can get away with without suffering any long-term effects.
I think we now know that just one concussion could be one too many.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Horsnell’s story has been in and out of the media for some years but really he’s just the tip of the iceberg in this regard, as many players similarly affected either haven’t had their conditions properly diagnosed, are in denial, or just not well known enough for it to be newsworthy.
Horsnell was quoted as saying: “I know a lot of blokes my vintage with similar problems… although maybe not as severe. Most are in denial and just dealing with it with drugs and alcohol.”
We don’t know how many Brett Horsnells are out there, but I suspect there’s more than we’d like to admit.
We do know that many former players are either living with or have died from dementia in recent years, and dementia is one of the more severe symptoms of CTE.
While it’s great to see that the NRL has taken some steps to reduce the risk of concussion in recent years, and also to see that concussion sufferers like Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend have been encouraged to retire early rather than risk any further damage, it looks to me like we’ll be hearing Brett Horsnell’s sad story repeated time and time again for as long as the game goes on.
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