{"id":340715,"date":"2025-12-11T02:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340715\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T02:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:11:15","slug":"afl-news-bulldogs-legends-staggering-act-during-2025-season-after-going-public-with-scary-ordeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340715\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news: Bulldogs legend’s staggering act during 2025 season after going public with scary ordeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Bulldogs<\/a> legend Brad Johnson has broken his silence on a cancer scare he endured in 2025 that saw a lump “the size of a small footy” removed from the 49-year-old. Johnson is the record games holder for the Bulldogs and an Australian Football Hall of Famer, but has transitioned into a broadcast role with Fox Footy and is often seen providing expert analysis from the boundary during the network’s AFL<\/a> coverage.<\/p>\n

But a shock cancer diagnosis in early August threw his TV role into doubt, with Johnson sharing his story for the first time on the latest episode of the Howie Games podcast. The Bulldogs legend says he noticed a concerning lump after taking part in a game of bubble soccer for an episode of Fox Footy\u2019s Bounce earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured<\/p>\n

A cancer diagnosis and weeks of subsequent treatment didn’t stop AFL great Brad Johnson performing his broadcast duties with Fox Footy in 2025. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cAfterwards I wasn\u2019t sore at all, but just noticed my lat muscle was sticking out a bit more than normal,” he said on the podcast. “I didn\u2019t really think much of it – I\u2019m like, I\u2019m not sore, I was in an enclosed position with the bubble soccer.<\/p>\n

“So I thought maybe something minor had happened, a bit of swelling from a knock, and I\u2019ll be fine. So I let it go for a week and nothing was changing… not sore at all, just pronounced.\u201d Thanks to his connections with the Western Bulldogs, Johnson was able to call upon long-time club doctor Jake Landsberger to check it out.<\/p>\n

The 364-game great was then instructed to go for an ultrasound “straight away”. He said: \u201cI remember the young lady who took the ultrasound, she left the room and brought the more senior doctor in and basically said to me there\u2019s a good size lump in there. It\u2019s about 11 or 12 centimetres.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/p>\n

Johnson was referred to a number of different medical experts before meeting with surgeon Dr Gerard Powell, who told the 49-year-old he had a liposarcoma – a rare cancer starting in fat cells that has varying survival rates. After informing his colleagues at Fox Footy about the shock diagnosis, Johnson was offered all the time off he needed by the pay-per-view TV network.<\/p>\n

Brad Johnson continued TV role during cancer treatment<\/p>\n

He even warned AFL great and Fox Footy colleague Dunstall in August that “you may need to replace me on the boundary on Thursday night\u201d. But despite an extensive treatment period that included five and a half weeks of radiation, Johnson powered through his broadcast duties with the same energy that has made him one of the AFL world’s most popular commentators.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old was only absent on the Fox Footy broadcasts for a couple of weeks during the season when he was unable to fly, such is his dedication to the craft and love of the game. And Johnson revealed that his “footy sense” helped get him through the ordeal, following the meeting with his surgeon.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured<\/p>\n

Brad Johnson (centre) pushed through his broadcast duties with Fox Footy despite undergoing cancer treatment in 2025. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was brilliant, a calm man, seriously calm, seriously positive guy. Made me feel from the outset that we\u2019re going to get this. ‘You follow me,’\u201d he said. \u201cBasically as soon as I walked in, ‘I\u2019m your coach, these are the steps you\u2019re going to take, you\u2019re going to follow your coach’. Turned it into a footy sense straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around one month after the radiation was completed, Johnson was able to go in for surgery to have the cancer removed. \u201cIt grew quick, and thank God it exposed itself in that way so I was able to get on top of it – a bit of luck, in some ways,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Johnson is now on the mend and hopes that by sharing his story, it will spread awareness for others that might find themselves in a similar situation. “I know there\u2019s still a little bit of work to do over the next couple of years,” he admitted. “But ultimately, I\u2019ve been through a process, let\u2019s talk about it, let\u2019s open it up so people can get some positive reinforcements themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Bulldogs legend Brad Johnson has broken his silence on a cancer scare he endured in 2025 that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,7488,1617,16778,1127,85,698],"class_list":["post-340715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brad-johnson","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-treatment","tag-fox-footy","tag-sports","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}