Former State of Origin star and Fox League personality Brett Finch enters mental health facility
Former State of Origin star turned media personality Brett Finch has entered a mental health facility after a distressing incident on a flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast.
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Former NRL star turned media identity Brett Finch has entered a mental health facility after suffering a medical incident this week.
Concerns were raised after Finch was spotted asleep with a blood nose on a flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast on Sunday.
A passenger told us Finch “looked like he couldn’t bring himself to get off the plane. White as a ghost, couldn’t control his runny nose and (appeared) paranoid.
“He wasn’t abusive. He just didn’t want to get off the plane, like he was scared about something.
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“The captain came out… they had to call fireys and ambulance to get him off.”
Another source said that the sight of Finch struggling with his breathing was “pretty confronting’’ and “sad”.
Several sources confirmed the former State of Origin star checked into a facility to start work on his health.
Concerns were initially raised by viewers about Finch after he appeared highly agitated on the Matty Johns podcast last month.
Finch told people close to him he was suffering from anxiety at the time.
Finch, 38, began working for Fox Sports in 2017 and married wife Elli last year.
They welcomed their first child, Mackenzie Grace, in May.
Is Brett Finch alright?? 🤔
— The Sporting Base (@thesportingbase) September 18, 2019
pic.twitter.com/Wj3qAoCjKz
Finch has previously talked about how he hit “rock bottom’’ after his retirement from rugby league in 2013.
The former Roosters, Raiders, Eels and Storm halfback said he isolated himself for six months as he dealt with crippling mental demons and the loss of his sporting identity.
“It took a few years, it took three trips to rehab facilities,” Finch told The Matty Johns Podcast. “I learned a lot about myself and the things that I’m dealing with. I had to realise I’m not going to get the highs I had in footy and for so long I was chasing that.”
Finch played in two grand finals for the Roosters but his biggest moment came in the first game of the 2006 Origin series when he kicked the winning field goal after being called into the squad on the eve of the match.
“One day I was a football player, the next day no one cares. It’s over,” Finch said of his rugby league highs. “I struggled to get any satisfaction in life.
“You train to extreme levels, you’re super fit and super strong. I thought I was a mentally tough bloke. I was trying to get some highs in my life.
“Someone I was seeing professionally told me to go down to Bondi Beach and watch the sunrise. So I did that and I thought, ‘Is this is it? Who gives a shit. This is nothing like playing a grand final.”