{"id":645471,"date":"2026-05-02T19:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645471\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T19:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:16:12","slug":"craig-bellamy-health-update-eels-legend-scared-for-the-first-time-after-bellamy-news-nathan-hindmarsh-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645471\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Bellamy health update: Eels legend ‘scared’ for the first time after Bellamy news, Nathan Hindmarsh comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nathan Hindmarsh<\/a> has admitted that Craig Bellamy<\/a>‘s recent health diagnosis “scared him” for the first time in his career, prompting the former Parramatta Eels<\/a> captain to reflect heavily on his own future.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne Storm<\/a> coach was recently diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder, the club announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The news has drawn widespread support from across the rugby league world<\/a> for the 66-year-old.<\/p>\n

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Speaking on Triple M, Hindmarsh was candid about the deep impact Bellamy’s diagnosis had on him as a fellow rugby league retiree.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old revealed he had not deeply considered his future or “what was down the track” prior to hearing about the diagnosis.<\/p>\n

“It’s scary, isn’t it? When the news broke the other day, I was straight away (thinking) ‘he’s a former rugby league player’ … and all those sorts of things,” said Hindmarsh.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nathan Hindmarsh played under Bellamy for the NSW Blues side. \u00a0AAP<\/p>\n

“I thought, he’s ’66, he’s fit, he trains with the boys, he’s up before them all, and he’s in the gym and he’s amongst it.’<\/p>\n

“He’s staying mentally there. So that, it scared me a little bit, in regards to what could be down the track.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hindmarsh, who has been a vocal advocate for concussion protocols since his retirement in 2012, admitted that Bellamy’s legendary status in the NRL<\/a> world made the news even more shocking to process.<\/p>\n

Hindmarsh played under Bellamy for the NSW Blues<\/a> during the 2008, 2009 and 2010 State of Origin<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

“I’m not saying that’s definitely what it is (CTE) or anything like that, but I’ve never been concerned about that sort of stuff until this broke with Craig,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“I thought, is it just part of the game or what?<\/p>\n

“But to be fit at 66… I think the fact that because of who it is and what he’s done in the game and where he is in regards to just being always there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Craig Bellamy has been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“You know, I was coached by Craig during Origin. I’ve obviously – playing amongst the teams he’s played against, all that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n

“So you know him, but you always see Craig as being someone who is top of the tree.<\/p>\n

“Bigger than the game. Again, going back to being fit and staying with it and all that sort of stuff, it is a bit scary.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan Hindmarsh has admitted that Craig Bellamy‘s recent health diagnosis “scared him” for the first time in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-645471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645471","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=645471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}