Exclusive: Melbourne Cup winner Michael Rodd opens up on shocking post-concussion syndrome battle

The champion jockey is back in the saddle and feeling better than ever but says he reached the depths of despair when battling shocking post-concussion syndrome symptoms during his 30 months out of the sport.

Melbourne Cup winner Michael Rodd had his first winner in more than two years at the Sunshine Coast on Friday night. Picture: Grant Peters—Trackside Photography.

Michael Rodd is back in the bright lights of the winner’s circle on the racetrack, but previously those same bright lights would cause him all the trouble in the world.

The Melbourne Cup-winning jockey suffered debilitating post-concussion syndrome which kept him out of racing for 30 months and he was told a number of times that his race riding career was over.

So bad were Rodd’s symptoms, he couldn’t stand the bright lights and sharp sounds of Christmas shopping for his kids, let alone looking at Christmas lights.

The champion jockey is calling for all sports to take post-concussion syndrome more seriously and look at the way they treat it, saying he is living proof athletes can come out the other side if they train their brain correctly.

“We have protocols that are going to keep getting updated, and with that we need to keep an open mind about more modern treatments as well,” he said.

“When you go to a sports doctor after having a concussion, most people are fine to go 14 days later. I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about post-concussion and the treatments available for prolonged symptoms.

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“The treatment options for post-concussion have changed, and unfortunately, I found out the hard way that many people treating concussion are still going off old ideas that are not effective.”

Even simple daily activities, such as hanging out the washing, caused Rodd’s symptoms to flare up.

Jockey Michael Rodd is on the comeback trail after 30 months out. Picture: Tara Croser.

“My concussion caused such extreme fatigue it was difficult to get up in the morning. I felt nauseated when there was a lot of light and sound in my house, and activities such as mowing the lawn were impossible,” he said.

“I had to be careful where I looked as fast movement brought on symptoms, and so did bright lights; it’s hard to describe just how sensitised I became to activities I once took for granted.”

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Rodd credits Victorian specialist Dr Brett Jarosz for saving his career and giving him the chance to resume a normal life with his family.

By following Dr Jarosz’s new and innovative ways of treating brain trauma, including functional rehabilitation, brain retraining and lifestyle changes, Rodd now believes he is healthier and fitter than he was before the injury.

The jockey believes his post-concussion may have been from a build-up of falls, the one on January 28, 2021, caused the most damage.

“From that date onwards, I felt a deterioration, however, it was six months before I was diagnosed,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it was right before concussion awareness became present in all our sporting codes. After being diagnosed, I saw numerous specialists who all told me the same thing: my career was over because of the symptoms I was having.

“From there, doctors gave me medication to mask or reduce my symptoms without ever treating the actual cause.

Michael Rodd (left) winning the 2007 Melbourne Cup aboard Efficient. Picture: News Corp Australia.

“I was prescribed headache tablets for my headaches and told to take anti-nausea tablets if I felt sick, with various other medications along the way.

“Instead of doing all that, I needed to be treating the concussion, not the symptoms, and all the symptoms would then go away.

“If you just try to reduce the symptoms, it may never go away. What Brett does is find the actual neural pathways that have been damaged as a result of the injury and tailors a treatment program to get in there and fix the damage.”

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It was a chance encounter that linked Rodd to Dr Jarosz, with the jockey returning to Melbourne once a month for the past 14 months to see him.

“By June 2022, I was at the end of it, I had seen several concussion specialists, all with differing opinions, none of which worked for me,” Rodd said.

“Then, on 60 Minutes, we saw Brett treating champion surfers Tyler and Owen Wright, so my wife immediately emailed him.

“He called straight back, and for the first time in a while we had hope.”

After riding his first winner since May 15, 2021 on Friday night at the Sunshine Coast, Rodd has a new outlook on life and racing.

“It is a different normal, all the faces are the same, it is the same routine, but I feel different,” Rodd said.

“Having two-and-a-half years off, and doing a lot of soul searching in between, a lot of reading and life changes. I look at things a bit differently.

“The time away has reinforced how much I love riding, it’s not something I appreciated when I was in the day-to-day grind.

“The injury has changed my outlook slightly. I try to be grateful for what I have now. my happiness, health and family.

“But I am now also excited that I have a future back in the saddle.”

Originally published as Exclusive: Melbourne Cup winner Michael Rodd opens up on shocking post-concussion syndrome battle