{"id":63134,"date":"2025-08-12T18:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T18:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/63134\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T18:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T18:09:09","slug":"afl-great-ben-cousins-makes-extraordinary-admission-about-mystery-concussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/63134\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL great Ben Cousins makes extraordinary admission about mystery concussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL great<\/a> Ben Cousins has opened up on a scary concussion incident where he could not remember hugely significant pieces of his life.<\/p>\n

Cousins was asked about the strangest injury he had suffered on his radio show on Mix94.5\u2019s Pete & Kymba with Ben Cousins<\/a>, and the 47-year-old recalled a moment from a pre-season game in 2009 against Collingwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrangest … OK, I had a concussion,\u201d Cousins began.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis happened not long after I arrived at Richmond. It was one of the first games that I played, it was a pre-season game, and I started the game, came off halfway through the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember getting hit or knocked at all. I sat on the bench and had no memory whatsoever of the previous two or three years, and I was like a goldfish \u2026 every 30 seconds to a minute, I would have no memory of the conversation that I had just had.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I kept going, \u2018Why am I playing for Richmond? What\u2019s happened?\u2019 …<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d go, \u2018You know, we picked you up over the summer.\u2019 (And I\u2019m going), \u2018Why aren\u2019t I playing for West Coast?\u2019 No memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just kept happening. It was bizarre.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after the game, we went over the tape to see if I had copped a knock in the vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing in the vision that we thought … it could have happened then. It was bizarre.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after the game I was still just going around in circles.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were trying to fill me in about the blanks, they said, \u2018You know you\u2019ve been sacked from West Coast, you went to rehab,\u2019 (and) I\u2019d go, \u2018What?\u2019 No memory of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven someone said, \u2018You know (West Coast champion) Chris Mainwaring had passed.\u2019 That was like being told for the first time (Mainwaring died of an overdose in 2007 at the age of 41).<\/p>\n

\u201c(I was) so emotional, in tears, crying. I had no memory of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Richmond staffer drove Cousins home after that game but he ended up at the Epworth Hospital in the early hours of Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our football department guys drove him home, and his sister and a friend of the family stayed with him,\u201d Richmond\u2019s former football manager Craig Cameron said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they decided during the night that he needed further attention, so he went to hospital somewhere between two or three o\u2019clock<\/p>\n

\u201cOur club doctor was notified and he got discharged this morning.\u201dCameron said Cousins was \u201cdisorientated\u201d when he came off the field, and then said he was a \u201clittle bit washed out\u201d after he came out of hospital.<\/p>\n

The AFL is facing a concussion class action with several former players involved wanting compensation for alleged damages.<\/p>\n

If it is successful, the AFL could be staring at $1 billion payout in damages.<\/p>\n

Cousins has not been linked to the class action.<\/p>\n

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