Controversial footy great Wayne Carey has revealed that the neck injury that ended his playing career is still so severe that he has suffered multiple falls recently and cannot feel anything in one of his hands.
The former North Melbourne star was forced to retire in 2004 when doctors told him he risked permanent paralysis if he played on after suffering an injury to his neck.
‘My left hand is basically numb, right hand going numb, I’m getting shooting pains, all that sort of stuff,’ Carey said on his You Cannot Be Serious podcast with Sam Newman.
‘I’ve fallen over a couple of times in the last couple of weeks.
‘I thought it was just me just maybe getting on in years and maybe tripped, but two days ago I went and saw a neurosurgeon.
‘I got MRIs to find out the extent [of the problem]. The last MRI I had on my neck was about 15 years ago, and it was pretty bad.’
Wayne Carey has revealed that he is still suffering severe effects from a footy injury to his neck more than 20 years after it forced him to retire
The 54-year-old has had multiple falls in recent weeks and cannot feel his left hand after damaging his spine in 2004
Carey explained that he saw neurosurgeon Dr Matt Guttman, who examined his old neck scans.
‘I will definitely need an operation,’ he continued, expressing his hope that the procedure will help return feeling to his hands.
Known as ‘The King’ due to his stellar on-field performances, Carey suffered the injury to his cervical spine in a match against Geelong on June 12, 2004.
He retired two weeks later after getting the news that he risked paralysis if he kept running out for the Adelaide Crows.
‘I was always half-expecting the neurosurgeon to say what he said, but in saying that, it’s always a surprise,’ he said at the time.
‘It’s cut my career nine games short which is disappointing because, you know, I wanted to finish off and play some good games in the second half for the Adelaide footy club and hopefully have a few more wins.’
The neck injury was far from the only long-lasting damage the 54-year-old suffered in a career that spanned 15 seasons.
In 2022 he revealed that he was going under the knife to ‘replace and repair my left shoulder’ after having two reconstructions on that joint, and a further reconstruction on his right shoulder.
Carey explained that he is due to have an operation that will hopefully see sensation return to his hands
The North Melbourne great also needed a shoulder replacement and developed severe arthritis after a career that spanned 15 seasons and 272 AFL games
He said the injury meant his ‘strength and range of movement was gone’ and that ‘numerous other parts of my body are severely arthritic’.
Renowned orthopaedic surgeon Greg Hoy told Carey his shoulder was ‘about as bad as it can get’.
The Kangaroos great’s health battles surfaced again when he was kicked out of a Perth casino when a bag of white powder fell out of his pocket in September 2022.
He received a two-year ban from Crown premises after the bag allegedly fell from his pocket onto the gaming table of the company’s Perth Promenade Hotel.
Carey’s lawyer at the time, Josh Bornstein, later explained that the star used the powder to deal with the pain caused by his years of footy.
‘Mr Carey is prescribed anti-inflammatories and painkilling medicine to help manage the significant pain caused by debilitating football injuries – including a shoulder that needs replacing and a neck injury that requires three discs to be replaced,’ Bornstein said.
