Spotlight: Rugby great’s emotional throwback to career-shattering moment
North Queensland Cowboys legend Matt Scott was 34 at the time of his stroke.
It was a Saturday night in Newcastle, and the Cowboys had headed out to commiserate a huge loss against the Knights. Less than 12 hours later, he was unable to walk properly.
“I woke up feeling really unwell, I put it down to being hungover. I went to the beach to swim it off, but the nausea and fatigue didn’t stop,” he said.
“Having played the night before, I didn’t think it could be anything too serious. But on the bus back to the airport and then on the plane back to Brisbane, I was just getting worse.”
Matt never made the connecting flight to Townsville with the rest of his team. Instead, he was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered he had experienced a stroke.
“I had four games left in the season before I was due to retire, it’s certainly not the way I wanted to end my career,” he said.
“It was pretty devastating to watch on from my hospital bed as my team ran out onto the field. My wife Lauren and my sons were able to walk out holding my jersey.”
After a three week stay in hospital, Matt returned to home to Townsville and began his long road to recovery. He threw everything he could into his rehabilitation journey.
Scott was set to retire at the end of the 2019 NRL campaign but was forced to immediately hang up the boots following his stroke.
He revealed his recovery is still a work in progress but said he is expected to return to full health in time.
“My recovery’s coming along pretty well, a little hiccup with the shoulder along the way and it’s going to be a long road, I’m certainly not 100 percent there yet but the doctor’s happy with how I’m progressing and confident I’ll get a full recovery.”