{"id":370952,"date":"2024-02-27T02:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T03:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=370952"},"modified":"2024-02-27T04:03:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T04:03:06","slug":"i-have-no-doubt-parkers-startling-cte-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=370952","title":{"rendered":"'I have no doubt': Parker's startling CTE admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL<\/a> great Corey Parker<\/a> claims he has "no doubt" he is suffering symptoms of CTE.<\/p>\n

The Broncos<\/a> and Queensland Origin<\/a> legend made the revelation while speaking on SEN Q Breakfast on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

The admission came on the same morning fellow Maroons great Wally Lewis<\/a> helped launch a new CTE-awareness campaign, 'You Only Get One Brain', at Parliament House in Canberra.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Broncos legend serves Walsh brutal reality check<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> England turns on Ashes villain after 'baffling' return<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The 41-year-old played 347 matches for the Broncos between 2001-2016.\ufeff He was skipper in 2016 \u2013 the 16th and final final season of his career. He also made 19 Origin appearances for the Maroons, and now works as a commentator for Fox Sports.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"This CTE, it's the word that obviously gets thrown around and rightly so, it is real," he said.<\/p>\n

"I've got no doubt, I have no doubt whatsoever over my tenure as a rugby league player that I have symptoms, I have symptoms of CTE.<\/p>\n

"But it's something that you can't really get a grasp on until obviously post-mortem. You can try and manage different things, but the damage is done isn't it."<\/p>\n

AFL great Graham "Polly" Farmer, former NRL premiership-winning coach Paul Green and AFLW player Heather Anderson all suffered CTE, which can only be formally diagnosed in an autopsy.<\/p>\n

Symptoms of CTE can include confusion, headache, general slowness of thinking, as well as sleep disturbances or unpredictable mood swings.<\/p>\n

There is also significant overlap of symptoms of CTE and mental health conditions, which can lead to a misdiagnosis. Green was being treated for depression<\/a>, but showed no improvement in symptoms.<\/p>\n

Parker said his sons all played contact sport, and praised the NRL for taking steps to avoid heavy collisions at a junior level.<\/p>\n

"The game has some accountability to take \u2026 from an NRL point of view, I think they're in a really good space at the moment, particularly on a junior level," he said.<\/p>\n

"From a senior level, I think at the moment the game has been in a really good spot.<\/p>\n

"You can't expect to play a high-collision sport (and) for 20 of those years at a high level and not have some sort of side effects."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As well as CTE \u2013 chronic traumatic encephalopathy \u2013 sufferers of repeated head-knocks and concussions are at far greater risk of forming Motor Neurone Disease.<\/p>\n

Parker's former Origin teammate Carl Webb died just before Christmas after a long battle with MND.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although he can no longer speak, AFL legend Neale Daniher continues to defy the odds a decade after his own MND diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Nine's Today Extra<\/em>, Lewis said he was "ignorant" throughout his career of the dangers of repeated head-knocks, and said his ego often got in the way after copping a particularly big hit.<\/p>\n

"We need honesty from the players. From my time in football, I didn't see too many guys come clean, put their hand up and say 'yes, I'm struggling, I've got problems, I've got real issues, my memory is starting to go'," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Saab<\/p>\n

"Most players displayed a little too much pride and not enough honesty (to) their doctors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"If they want to be able to take it under control or understand it or be given the best advice from the doctors, they need to open up pretty quickly."<\/p>\n

Parker said he and his teammates often wore as a "badge of honour" playing through a concussion.<\/p>\n

"We actually looked at it like, 'oh, this guy is so tough'," he said.<\/p>\n

"But there were points in my career where I knew I was concussed, I knew I was dazed and towards the backend of my career, I would actually buy myself time on the ground and grab a shoulder or leg until my head was right to then get to my feet.<\/p>\n

"I knew if I got to my feet I'd stumble, which is definitely not the right way to be thinking."<\/p>\n

Lewis was part of a delegation including leading neurological experts who spoke at Parliament House on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs immediate support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong>lifeline.org.au<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. In an emergency, call 000<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NRL great Corey Parker claims he has "no doubt" he is suffering symptoms of CTE. The Broncos and Queensland Origin legend made the revelation while […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=370952"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370958,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370952\/revisions\/370958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/370954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=370952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=370952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=370952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}