Former NRL hardman Mark ‘Spudd’ Carroll will donate his brain to help concussion research

For the first time in his entire life, former NRL enforcer Mark “Spudd” Carroll is afraid. That alone tells the impact the recent concussion discoveries can have on rugby league.

• MEASURES: Club doctors will have final say

• ISSUE: CTE discovered in two former players

For the first time in his life, legendary rugby league tough guy Mark ‘Spudd’ Carroll admits he is scared.

“I’m 52 years old,” he says, ”Hearing these reports, the way I played and with my body, of course I am concerned. No one likes to think about it.”

No-one played the game harder or tougher than the former Kangaroos and NSW Blues Origin forcer who played 185 NRL games in an era where foul play and head injuries were rife.

He has now offered to donate his brain to neuro research when he dies.

Carroll was one of the toughest players of his time.

“I look at some of the footage from when I played and I don’t know how I got off the ground,” he said.

“I remember a couple of occasions where I was playing Newcastle getting bashed by three blokes weighing 110kg. So I’m getting hit by 330kg of impact.

“I hit the ground and I remember I tried to get up and then you can see footage of me and I get up and I stumble. And I get up again and I stumble. Because my head felt like it was 30kg.

Mark Carroll wore his share of blows. Picture by Justin Lloyd.

“The trainer would run on from Manly and give me the smelling salts and the next time I’d be coming out of the line again and whack.”

He says in those days it was a sign of weakness or lack of courage to come off.

“It was a badge of honour,” he said, “I was more worried about my old man jumping the fence and kicking me up the arse. Dad always said ‘never show you’re hurt. Always get up’. It was bloody stupid. I guarantee Chief (Paul Harragon) was the same.”

Carroll has now called on the NRL to fund testing for all former first grade players who are experiencing possible early signs of dementia.

“That’s the least the game can do,” Carroll said.

LISTEN! In a special one-on-one interview Matty sits down with Sam Burgess to talk through the highs and lows of his career, his desire to play at Manly and his venture into rugby union.

“The excellent measures they have in place now weren’t around when we were playing.

“I’m thinking about the guys who were playing 15 years before me who set my path in rugby league like the Terry Randalls and the Ray Prices,” he said.

“All the big hitters back then used to lay there with blood coming from their heads.

“I have got concerns for those guys. And I reckon if they have concerns the NRL should pay for a test. A lot of players probably won’t get it done because it costs too much. Some blokes have fallen into hardship and were not on the money the players are now.”

These days Carroll runs a successful inner city gym business.

He was also once a bodyguard for Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe.

“I wish I could read better,” he says, “I’ve got no patience for it unless I’m wearing those magnifying glasses and it slows me down.

“I tried the HIA the other day on a phone App. I’m not even concussed and I found it hard.

“When I was coming through the doctor would say ‘give me two numbers’. They would come in two minutes later and ask ‘what were those two numbers?’ And you go ‘mate, did you give me two numbers?’ and you’d be right to go on.”

Carroll copped punishment plenty of times, including this high shot from Jason Smith that concussed him in 1999.

Carroll still helps NRL players and teams with training at his gym.

He recalls the day was working out with the Waratahs’ Super Rugby team.

“I remember that Will Skelton from the NSW Waratahs,” he said, and I just kept walking at him saying ‘mate, you’ve got nothing’ and walking towards him.

“An idiot, right? He was going bang, bang, bang into my chest. Next thing I stopped and my whole body went into shudder mode. Your whole body was shaking. And I guarantee you other blokes will read that and say ‘I’ve been the same’.

“They (punches) stay in your body mate. They stay in your body.”