Richmond triple premiership hero Kane Lambert has lifted the lid on his long-term health battles while carving out a career as one of the AFL’s great stories of persistence.
Speaking to nib Health, the 30-year old, who retired midway through the season due to a chronic hip issue, also opened up on his non-conventional path to the top league, which included sitting out a full year in 2010 after being overlooked in his first national and rookie drafts out of school.
“It was a really big learning curve for me,” Lambert said of the decision to spend the year working full-time in a can factory and stepping away from his AFL dream.
“There were people in my life who cared about Kane Lambert the person, and there were people who cared about Kane Lambert the footballer.
“I was playing football for the wrong reasons. It took a little bit of time to realise that.”
At 177cm, Lambert was one of the AFL’s smallest players throughout his career, but his tenacious attack on the football and tackling pressure made him a crucial cog in the Tigers’ incredible era.
However, it wasn’t always the case, with Lambert revealing a broken collarbone suffered while playing for the Northern Bullants (then Preston) in the VFL helped him come to terms with the condition his body needed to be in to play high-level football.
“I was playing pretty decent football at that stage, albeit well undersized and probably struggling a little bit physically, and inevitably I ended up breaking my collarbone midway through the year,” Lambert said.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
“That was my first experience with a serious injury… my body was a vehicle for me to be able to perform at the level that I wanted to; without my health, I was unable to do anything I really love. Ulitmately, that comes first.
“[I realised] I’m going to benefit a lot more if I put time into my strengths: my fitness, my speed, my agility, basically my overall body composition, to play footy for a long period of time, and to be able to compete at senior level.”
Lambert admitted he will probably ‘end up with a hip replacement’ due to the chronic issue that forced him into retirement, but says he has no plans to shy away from an active lifestyle n future.
He hopes his experience can help others deal with their own health battles moving forward.
“I think future Kane ends up with a hip replacement, with the chronic injuries that I’ve got at this point. I want to live out a healthy, active lifestyle and become a really good family man,” Lambert said.
“Without my health, I wouldn’t be sitting here and for me that’s come first. It always has to come first.
“My health is my wealth. It’s something I’ll continue to do, whether I’m playing football or not.”
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