Rugby league icon Graham Eadie has been rushed to hospital after suffering two seizures this week.
The former Manly, NSW and Kangaroos star is now being treated in a Gold Coast hospital and is confused, weak and suffering from low oxygen levels, according to News Corp.
Eadie was diagnosed with the deadly brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) last year, decades after playing in arguably the game’s roughest era.
CTE is a progressive, degenerative and incurable brain disease linked to repeated head trauma, often seen in athletes who play contact sports.
It is characterised by the build-up of a specific protein called tau, which damages brain cells over time.
Eadie also suffered a stroke that left him fighting for his life in April last year as he battled bacterial meningitis.
Manly legend Graham Eadie (pictured) is being treated in hospital after suffering two seizures this week
The 72-year-old rugby league icon has been diagnosed with the deadly brain condition CTE in addition to battling epilepsy
He had a lumbar puncture test which revealed he’d had a previous stroke in addition to the bacterial infection.
The 72-year-old – who also has epilepsy – had coffee with fellow footy legend Larry Corowa and other former teammates before suffering the seizures this week.
‘Graham has had his health issues over the last couple of years and we, all the boys, are right behind him,’ Corowa told the publication.
‘We had coffee with him on Wednesday morning and [he] seemed to be OK.
‘He is much loved in the rugby league community and everyone is right behind him and we wish him all the best.’
Eadie was a mainstay at the Manly Sea Eagles in the 1970s and early 1980s and was man of the match in the 1976 and 1978 grand final wins, in addition to playing 20 Tests for the Kangaroos.
The man affectionately known as ‘Wombat’ gave his first interview about his CTE diagnosis to the Daily Mail from his home on the Gold Coast last June.
He said his rugby league career played a major role in his recent health decline.
Eadie, affectionately known as ‘Wombat’, was left fighting for his life when he had a stroke in April last year
The 72-year-old former fullback (pictured playing for Manly) told the Daily Mail that his career in what was arguably footy’s toughest era played a big role in his declining health
‘I think it did quite a bit. I can be good then I just forget where I am and a few of the blokes that I played with have that problem too, or had that problem before they passed away,’ Eadie said.
‘It’s hard. It’s a thing that I’ve got to react to. You can have these problems when you play a game like that.
‘It’s difficult to comprehend what happens to you in your later life after getting knocked around. Graeme Langlands was one bloke that had a problem and I know Wally (Lewis) has a bit of a problem.’
It was Immortal Wally Lewis who encouraged Eadie and his wife of 23 years Leah to visit Dr Rowena Mobbs, a neurologist and the founder and director of the Australian CTE Biobank.
‘Wally rang Graham and told him he had to go see Rowena,’ Leah said.
‘She saw him and looked at me and said, “Leah, without a doubt he’s in full CTE, he’s in a bad stage of it too”.’
