Matt’s tough road back
COWBOYS and Queensland Maroons great Matt Scott has revealed for the first time just how hard the journey to recovery has been after a stroke cut short his decorated NRL career last year.
A feeling of nausea in August last year was the first sign the fit and healthy 35-yearold had that something wasn’t right.
It wasn’t until the team arrived in Brisbane for a short stopover between flights ts home from a game in Newwcastle he realised he couldn’t ’t walk.
Scott said he counts himself lucky to be healthy, happy and enjoying the challenges es of a new business – but that at doesn’t mean the road back k has been easy.
Scott has had a lengthy reecovery process, which continnues, and the shock setback has as meant all his post-retirement nt plans were changed.
The premiership-winning captain announced his retirement from the NRL on July 19 last year.
But Scott never expected his glittering career to end the way it did.
Just over a month later, he was lying in a hospital bed in Brisbane after he suffered a stroke.
He wouldn’t get to farewell the game on his terms. His NRL career was over.
To this day, Scott remembers the confusion when he woke the day after a game against the Knights.
“I couldn’t stop throwing up, I was dizzy. The world was spinning and I couldn’t see straight or walk straight. I actually couldn’t walk at all at one stage,” he said. “I was rooming with (teammate) Scott Bolton and he could tell there was something wrong. We’d had a couple drinks the night before but it was nothing crazy. He knew it couldn’t be the cause.
“I sat next to him on the plane and he could see something was really wrong.”
Scott made it on to the flight to Brisbane, but couldn’t go any further from there.
“I couldn’t really open my eyes and I couldn’t stop throwing up,” he said. “From then on it was just into hospital and there were lots of questions. We actually didn’t find out what the cause was for another 24 hours.”
The news came as a shock to Scott, his family, and his team.
He was discharged from hospital by September 4, but it was going to be a long road ahead to return to full health.
He admitted it was hard to understand why it happened and even harder when reality hit that his playing career was over.
“It feels like such a long time ago now but it’s only been in the last six months where I have got to a point where I feel pretty good most days,” said Scott, who has started a construction business with his brother, Adrian.
“I am used to what life’s like now. I have a couple of symptoms that are specific to my type of stroke. I have limited feeling down the left side of my body but still have full function, which is lucky.
“I still get a bit of dizziness, blurred vision. But it’s at a pretty good level now where I can manage it.”