Ben Cousins, the 2005 Brownlow medallist and former West Coast Eagles champion, recently had a fairly benign hernia operation. He had endured what he termed the worst pain of his life. To compensate, he pushed his health concerns aside, believing them to be solvable. He intended to wait until the conclusion of the footy season to get it checked out.
Cousins was in attendance at State of Origin II over the past week in Perth. Once he emerged, he was left in a drastically new world – forced to contend with soul-crushing pain. Though he tried to ignore the pain at first, he remained home from school and tried to convalesce. When the pain grew worse and worse, he decided to seek medical help and bring himself to the hospital.
Reflecting on his ordeal, Cousins stated, “I may have been in as much pain (before in my life), but I have never been in more. I was ready to pass out, all this sort of stuff, couldn’t talk.” He apologized for the time taken to respond with treatment and identified his pattern of working through individual struggles.
As Cousins continues to navigate health struggles, she remains haunted by the heaviness of loss. His grieving has lately turned to two longtime platonic friends who recently died. In tribute to his late friend Chass Guthrie, Chass had long battled illness largely in secrecy before his death. The emotional toll of these losses, Cousins noted at the time, weighed heavily on Guthrie’s emotional state.
Last Saturday, Cousins attended Adam Selwood’s memorial service alongside numerous other AFL stars, including his former teammates Chris Judd, Daniel Kerr, David Wirrpanda, Beau Waters, and Sam Butler. The gathering served as a poignant reminder of the bonds formed during their playing days and the shared grief over losing a friend.
Cousins was warmly remembered for his electrifying performance in the 2006 grand final with West Coast. He thought about how those treasured moments now intersect with his life-altering health problems. As he put it, I fell (like Autumn leaves), to show how sudden my fall was.
After having surgery on Friday, Cousins said he was feeling “a little tender for sure.” While he confronts these health issues, he remains a beloved figure in the AFL community, recognized for both his achievements on the field and his resilience off it.
