Rugby league great Ray Price has revealed he is battling dementia so severe it once left him walking bloodied and barefoot down a road at 3am before being rescued by a passing motorist – as he blames inaction over illegal tackles for his mental health struggle.
The 69-year-old is regarded as one of the toughest players of all time after excelling in rugby union before switching codes and helping the Parramatta Eels win four premierships in the 1980s.But Price’s incredible ability to play through punishment – which saw him nicknamed ‘Mr Perpetual Motion’ – has come at a horrifying cost, with the ex-forward revealing he has been diagnosed with dementia.
At one stage the deadly condition left him wandering down a road in his pyjamas at 3am, his bare feet bloody from 10km of walking before he was rescued by a motorist who recognised him and called triple 0, he told the
There’s no doubt the head knocks I copped during my playing days caused my brain damage.
‘I believe the referees of that era had the weapons to stop these high tackles from occurring and they refused to do it. It’s crap
Price is seeing the same neurologist as his fellow footy great, Mario Fenech, whose shocking battle with early onset dementia made headlines recently when it was revealed that his condition is so severe he will soon need full-time care despite being just 60 years old.
The Eels legend has no doubt that he, Fenech and other players of their day were exposed to repeated blows to the head due to bad officiating.
‘I felt really bad for Mario and there could be a lot of players from our era who are going to be in the same position,’ Price said.
‘It’s unfair, but that’s the price we paid for that era of football.The former Eels and Wallabies star said he fully supports the modern emphasis on protecting players who have been concussed, which is a far cry from what happened in his day, when he said players would play on despite being ‘dazed’. His dementia battle is the latest in a series of health setbacks for Price after he and his wife Sandy were both diagnosed with skin cancer in 2019. He also suffered from bowel cancer 15 years ago.
‘With bowel cancer, the doctors said I wouldn’t last more than a week, but I said bulls**t and I refused to give up.
‘If you give in, you are succumbing to something that will kill you and I just don’t want to do that.’
When he and Sandy fought through melanoma, Price showed his typical defiance in the face of the killer condition.
‘The doctors are saying it’s a million to one chance we could both have it together. It’s been tough but we’ll get through,’ he said.
‘People are suffering all over the world from coronavirus so who are we to complain?
‘I don’t care what the doctors say … we’ll beat the bastard.’
