Liam Fulton still living with pain of the past due to serious concussions during career

Former Tiger Liam Fulton has spoken of the concerning stigma around concussion during his playing days that eventually contributed to his premature retirement from rugby league.

• ULTIMATE HONOUR: Teddy firms for Dally M glory

• KENT: Inside story of Ramien’s Newcastle exit

Liam Fulton knew something was amiss when a small children’s book fell on his head.

It felt like the impact of a big dictionary and led to yet another dizzy spell.

Fulton was forced to retire in 2014 after 162 NRL matches because of the impact of multiple concussions.

The Wests Tigers forward was just 29 but was told it could be “catastrophic” if he copped another head knock after bouts of short-term memory loss and confusion.

Today, Fulton has to be wary of bumping his head.

Live stream the 2019 NRL Telstra Premiership on KAYO SPORTS. Every game of every round live & anytime on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14 day free trial >

Liam Fulton with his daughters Taya (1), Zali (3) and Mackenzie (5). Picture: Brett Costello

MORE NRL NEWS

MALONEY: PENRITH AREN’T A PREMIERSHIP THREAT

PROUD EAGLE WANTS PAY CUT TO STAY IN NEST

“My head is definitely softer and more sensitive,” Fulton, 34, told The Sunday Telegraph.

“If I get hit on the head by my daughters or just mucking around, I actually feel it more now I reckon.

“One of my daughter’s books recently fell off the shelf. It was only a small, thin book but it felt like one of those big old dictionaries hitting my head.

“I wasn’t expecting it to just be a little book. It is either I’ve gotten softer in retirement or my head has gotten softer.

“It’s why I try and avoid anything to do with my head but it is hard when you put your daughter on your shoulders and hit my head.

Fulton has a bad history of concussions. Picture: Gregg Porteous

“I couldn’t be playing footy now. Far out, you wouldn’t be able to deal with it.”

Discussion around concussion has increased tenfold in the five years since Fulton retired.

The entire game is more aware of the side effects while the code’s head knock protocol is thorough.

Unfortunately this wasn’t the case during Fulton’s career at the Tigers.

Players would regularly back up after suffering serious concussions while there was a concerning stigma that you were “soft” if you didn’t play.

“I remember in 2009 when Willie Mataka missed a game at the Tigers because of concussion,” Fulton said.

Fulton retired prematurely due to head knocks. Picture: Gregg Porteous

“I was overseas at the time and the players were like, ‘who misses a game for concussion’.

“It was like, ‘what the hell – what is wrong with this guy’.

“That was the mentality – it was like a weakness.

“But no one really knew the side effects of concussion.

“Any footballer playing in the early 2000s and beforehand would have head knocks all the time.

“But it was just like, ‘okay you have a headache and on Monday morning you wouldn’t train but you are playing the week after.

“That is just how it was. It can be a bit scary but what do you do.”

Fulton had little choice but to retire when doctors told him that another head knock could be disastrous.

He thought immediately of his young family and his desire to be a dad.

“But if I was 23 years old there is no way I would have contemplated retirement,” he said.

“I would have just had a year off if I had to.

LISTEN! Matty Johns talks to Cameron Smith about his career, almost leaving Melbourne, ‘influencing’ refs, the salary cap drama and plenty more.

“I guess because I was getting towards the end of my career and I had a young family, it was totally different. But I’m glad I retired when I did.

“I don’t think awareness around concussion really kicked in until around 2014 when I suffered mine and it started to become a bit more known.

“Every time I got a head knock everyone was talking about me and then the protocols started to change.’’

Fulton wants to use his story to help others experiencing concussion symptoms.

It’s why he’d happily donate his brain for head knock research like other former rugby league players, including Parramatta legend Ray Price.

“If they asked me, I’d definitely do it,” he said.

“If it is going to help people in the future I would for sure but no one has asked me.

“But if anyone wants it, they can take it. I’ll be dead — I won’t care.”

Fulton has spoken out at the stigma surrounding concussion during his days. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Fulton keeps busy in retirement running two businesses from his family home in Western Sydney.

He runs mortgage broker business Fulton Financial and leases out skill testing and music machines at various leagues clubs.

Fulton struggles to attend NRL matches these days because it makes him miss playing but he doesn’t regret retiring when he did.

“I can see why ex-players have problems,” he said.

“You look at players who played in the 90s and early 2000s and how brutal the game was.

“Look how badly Dallas Johnson got knocked out in one of the Origins and he played again.

“And Dallas got knocked out heaps but no one even thought of it as anything bad.

“But you look back now and think, ‘how didn’t someone, especially doctors, think this isn’t the right thing to do and say you can’t go back on the field’.

“How has it only emerged in the last four or five years — it is just ridiculous.”