- Star went from Brisbane Broncos to Fox Sports team
- Suffered first-degree burns just before year’s biggest game
Brisbane Broncos great turned Fox Sports analyst Corey Parker has revealed the first-degree facial burns that stopped him from commentating on this year’s NRL grand final.
The veteran of 347 NRL games was enjoying a bush holiday with family and friends when a burn-off went badly wrong.
‘I was at a mate’s farm and there were some old cane lounges we were burning off,’ Parker explained.
‘One cane lounge went onto the fire, then we threw a second one on the fire and it rolled away.
‘I instinctively moved to put it back on the fire but as I grabbed the lounge, it really caught alight and the flames got my arm.
‘Then I felt this big gust of heat hit my face. It felt like opening an oven door and being hit by the heat.
‘It was a more intense version of that and straight away it was sore.’
Parker told News Corp he didn’t seek professional medical treatment and flew to Sydney to work the grand final the day after the accident.
Corey Parker suffered first-degree burns to his face and arm in an accident on a mate’s farm
The Brisbane Broncos great (pictured with wife Margaux) was sent home when he showed up to commentate on the NRL grand final earlier this month
Parker opened up about another health battle earlier this year when he said he has ‘no doubt’ he’s suffering from a deadly brain disease
‘I thought the make-up girls would some make up on me but they had a look and said, “No, we aren’t touching your face”, so I flew back home again,’ he said.
Parker applied antibiotic cream to the burns to guard against infection and said all his skin had peeled off in a few days, adding that he has now made a full recovery.
The ex-Queensland State of Origin star revealed another health battle in February this year when he said he’s certain he is suffering from a deadly disease linked to concussions and head knocks.
Parker said he has ‘no doubt’ he is suffering from the effects of the fatal brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
CTE is a degenerative brain disorder which has strong links to repeated head knocks, and can only be diagnosed after death.
It can lead to dementia, personality changes and suicidal thinking, and there is no cure or treatment.
‘This CTE, it’s the word that obviously gets thrown around and rightly so — it is real,’ Parker said.
‘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.
‘But it’s something that you can’t really get a grasp on until obviously post-mortem.
‘You can’t expect to play a high-collision sport, [and] for [close to] 20 of those years at a high level, and not have some sort of side effects.
‘You can try and manage different things, but the damage is done, isn’t it?’
