Rugby league legend Tommy Raudonikis has revealed he has throat cancer

NEW South Wales rugby league legend Tommy Raudonikis has just revealed he has throat cancer.

Former Rugby League great Tommy Raudonikis outside his import business at Tigalpa in Brisbane where he talks about his legal action where he is claiming a cancerous testicle he had removed in the 1980s was linked to his years of work inside the fuel tanks of the air force's main transport plane the C-130 Hercules.

NEW South Wales rugby league legend Tommy Raudonikis has just revealed he has throat cancer.

Raudonikis made the announcement while speaking to the Continuous Call team on 2GB, just ahead of kick-off in Origin II.

Raudonikis said he just received the diagnosis on Wednesday.

Raudonikis played in the very first Origin encounter as the Blues halfback in 1980.

He played 24 times for New South Wales and 20 Test matches for Australia and was the dominant halfback of the 1970s.

He was a Western Suburbs Magpies legend where he spent the first decade of his career before he spent a further three seasons at Newtown.

The 64-year-old also coached the New South Wales Origin team in 1997 and 98 and had five seasons as coach of his former club, the Magpies, in the 90s.