Brandon O’Neill credits illness for turning him into a soccer star
When Brandon O’Neill was diagnosed with a childhood condition as an eight-year-old, he didn’t let that stop him of pursuing his dream to become a soccer star. Instead, the A-League ace credits his illness with creating the “monster” he is today.
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You don’t climb to the height of representing your country on the sporting field without bleeding the green and gold.
But, for some, it can mean just that little bit more.
Brandon O’Neill is one of those. Because, when the 25-year-old football ace pulled on the Socceroos journey for the first time last year, his journey to the national team had been longer and harder than most.
“I had a different upbringing to most,” he tells Health Hacker.
“I was diagnosed with Perthes disease, which is where your hip pretty much stops growing. I was diagnosed when I was eight and spent a year in a wheelchair when I was in primary school.
“Thank God PlayStation was invented by then.
“Of course I spent time asking ‘why me?’. But even at that age I realised I had to listen to people, take their expert advice and do what was right to get back on my feet.
“And a year-and-a-half later I was back playing football.”
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O’Neill used his hardships early in life to stoke his competitive fire, with the A-League star crediting his childhood illness with creating the “monster” he is today.
“After that first Socceroos cap you might think I’d go and celebrate representing my country at the highest level but I remember calling my wife from Korea and telling her I needed a few more caps now and asking when I could start preparing for the next game,” he said.
To understand how seriously O’Neill takes his football, you’d need to take a peek into his carry-on luggage on away games.
Where most of his teammates have magazines and phone chargers, he carried something a little different.
“I bring my little digital food scales everywhere I go and I weigh everything I eat,” he said.
“The lads at the club think I’m mental. But it’s one of those things that makes me tick.
“I know the weight I want to play at, and the body-fat percentage I need to be to play my best, and my nutrition is a huge part of that.”
FAST FACTS ON … ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS
1. Think big
“I think a growth mindset is huge,” O’Neill says.
“I think in the landscape of professional sport, or just in life, you need to identify what you can be better at, and once you’ve ticked that box, you move straight on to the next thing.”
2. Build stepping stones
“Set little goals to start off with,” O’Neill says.
“It can be as simple as going for a half-hour walk. The next week, you bump it up a bit, and then again, and all of a sudden you’re running for a couple of kilometres. Then you can look at your diet, your sleep – it just snowballs.”
3. Worker harder than the rest
“I always want to do what the other people won’t do today, so I can do what they can’t tomorrow,” O’Neill says.
“That’s when the big things really start to happen.”
ASK ADAM
Question: I’ve learned to dread the scales. The numbers seem to go up and down all the time – even over the course of one day. Do they really give an accurate picture of how your weight loss journey is going?
Answer: Scales are great for the bigger picture, but like the Body Mass Index, they neglect important factors like fat loss, muscle gain, and water retention.
So while you may be the same weight you were last week, you’ve actually continued to make progress.
I actually recommend before and after pictures, because not only do they show you how far you’ve come, but you get a real buzz out of seeing the old you compared to the new you!
* Send your questions to adam@themanshake.com.au
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