![\"ASADA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f9b596872aedf81362db5692b8d0ff56.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAFL great\u00a0James Hird was taken to hospital after suffering a medical episode while appearing live on Channel Nine\u2019s Footy Classified on Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The former Essendon captain\u00a0reportedly became\u00a0distressed during the\u00a0early stages\u00a0of the program after a piece of food became lodged in his throat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Viewers could hear the 53-year-old coughing shortly after the show began before he left the set during the first ad break.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the incident, Hird returned and completed the\u00a0remainder\u00a0of the broadcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Host Eddie McGuire\u00a0later revealed Hird\u00a0required\u00a0emergency treatment after leaving the studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJames did the show and went\u00a0to emergency,\u201d McGuire\u00a0told the Herald Sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave him general\u00a0anaesthetic, put a tube down his\u00a0throat\u00a0and found a piece of lamb that was\u00a0apparently blocking\u00a0his esophagus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like he was drowning because the saliva couldn’t get through.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McGuire said Hird had already been discharged from hospital by Wednesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people would take two months off work. Hirdy finished the show and\u00a0he’s\u00a0(already) out of hospital.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hird remained on the panel throughout most of the broadcast despite discomfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is still expected to appear on another Channel Nine football program later this week alongside former Geelong premiership player Jimmy Bartel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The former midfielder remains one of Essendon\u2019s most decorated players, winning two premierships in 1993 and as captain in 2000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After retiring in 2007, he moved into coaching and was appointed Essendon coach in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His tenure became overshadowed by the club\u2019s supplements scandal\u00a0where thirty-four Essendon players were found guilty on appeal of taking banned performance-enhancing substances during the 2012 AFL season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fallout placed intense pressure on Hird both professionally and personally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2020, he spoke publicly about the toll the scandal had taken on his mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember sitting on my kitchen floor and everyone’s gone to bed, my wife’s upstairs, the kids are in bed, and I am sitting there, just crying on the ground,\u201d he\u00a0told friend and fellow great Shane Crawford\u00a0at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You’re just grieving this life you had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hird\u00a0has since\u00a0worked in coaching and mentoring positions at VFL level before transitioning into football media.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL great\u00a0James Hird was taken to hospital after suffering a medical episode while appearing live on Channel Nine\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,322271,64,63,55,639,322272,3028,322273,48340,85],"class_list":["post-667500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-legend","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-choking-incident","tag-essendon","tag-footy-classified","tag-james-hird","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667500","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=667500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}