Australian Football Hall of Fame 2025: Nick Riewoldt reveals injury toll of football career with St Kilda

Nick Riewoldt can’t remember the last time he went for a run and sleeps with pillows under his legs. He tells Jay Clark about the brutal toll footy took on his body.

Newly inducted AFL Hall of famer Nick Riewoldt says he feels a “huge sense of gratitude” to the game but has revealed the enormous toll football has taken on his body.

As he received the honour, an emotional Riewoldt told the Herald Sun he is unable to go for a run or straighten his left leg after 13 knee surgeries.

The St Kilda great detailed how his left knee was drained of 100mls of fluid every week for two seasons in 2013-14 as he bravely defied the pain to play 43 games for nine wins.

Riewoldt was one of eight players inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame on Tuesday night in addition to the elevation of 1417-goal SANFL superstar Ken Farmer to legend status.

Hawthorn four-time premiership icon Luke Hodge, Melbourne great Garry Lyon, AFLW superstars Daisy Pearce and Erin Phillips, 1960s SANFL legend Peter Darley, WAFL seven-time flag winner and umpire George Owens, and Tasmania team of the century vice-captain John Leedham were honoured.

Riewoldt, who was one of the hardest runners in the game throughout his champion career, said he held reservations about the ways he pushed his body to the limit to stay out on the field.

“I’m paying the price now because I have to sleep with pillows under my legs and I cannot run. I can’t remember the last time I ran,” Riewoldt said.

“I can’t straighten my left leg because it has all calcified. It is cooked. It just aches.

“My knee would just fill up with fluid, so on the way home from (training at) Seaford on Tuesdays I would have 100mls drained out of it.

“Every week for two years.

“At the time I didn’t really know (about the long-term damage), but I would make some different decisions around it (in hindsight).”

Riewoldt says he has found perspective in recent years in what he got out of the game despite never reaching the ultimate success of a grand final victory.

“I feel just a huge sense of gratitude for everything the game gave me, and my family, rather than what is missing.

“So I’m glad I got there in the end.”

He says his knee pain can be so severe at times he “can’t walk” after playing with his three boys, James, William and Teddy.

Nick and Jack Riewoldt after facing off in Maddie’s Match. Picture: Michael Klein

The six-time St Kilda best-and-fairest winner also detailed the harrowing effects of a concussion in 2015 which threatened to end his career three years before he eventually retired in 2017.

Riewoldt said the head clash with Crow Brodie Smith, which left him unable to recall the passing of his sister, Maddie, only months earlier, was the “the scariest” time of his career.

He was stretchered off the ground in Adelaide and taken to hospital for assessment.

“I was ‘coming to’ in the ambulance and I just had a sense of dread that something bad had happened, and I was saying ‘Is everything OK?” he said.

“Is Cath OK? Is my mother OK? Is my brother, my sister OK? I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t remember what it was.

“So then, I can remember all the doctors and physios looking at each other and then they had to break the news to me again, about what had happened.

“It was only about two or three months after Maddie had passed away and I couldn’t remember that happening.

“Cath said to me ‘Surely you are done (retired)?’ I was able to win that argument with her and eek out a couple more.”

Nick Riewoldt after colliding with Brodie Smith. Picture: Sarah Reed.

Riewoldt is taken from the field on a stretcher.

He’s joined in the Hall of Fame by one of the most dominant forwards from the generation before him, with former Melbourne captain, Lyon, recognised for his monumental contribution to football.

After 226 matches across 14 seasons, Lyon kicked 426 goals and received five All-Australian jumpers during his time in the game. Since retiring, he has gone on to become one of the most astute minds in the footy media, including co-hosting AFL360 on Fox Footy alongside Gerard Whateley each week.

Maddie, Nick, Fiona, Joe and Alex Riewoldt. Picture: Supplied.

Hodge is one of the most decorated names to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as an integral part of the four premierships Hawthorn won between 2008 and 2015.

He captained the club during their remarkable three-peat between 2013 and 2015, won two Norm Smith Medals in 2008 and 2014 and was named All-Australian captain in 2010 – one of three times he made the side.

It was also an important night for the history of the Hall of Fame with Phillips and Pearce becoming just the second and third women, respectively, to be inducted.

Phillips, who is also an Olympian and a WNBA champion, was one of the first superstars of the AFLW competition when it launched in 2017. She won three premierships with the Crows and was named the league’s best and fairest on two occasions.

Pearce had a similarly influential impact on the formative years of the AFLW. She captained Melbourne in the competition’s inaugural season, is a three-time All-Australian and finally won a premiership with her beloved Dees in 2022, which doubled as her last-ever game in the competition.

Since retiring, she has gone on to coach the West Coast Eagles as they look to become a consistent finals threat in the AFLW.

The three other new entrants into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday were 1960s SANFL legend Peter Darley, former umpire and seven-time WAFL champion George Owens, and Tasmanian team of the century vice-captain John Leedham.

There was also a chance to honour previous inductee Ken Farmer. Also known as the “Don Bradman of football”, Farmer, who kicked the most goals in the competition’s history, was officially upgraded to round out the night’s proceedings.

Originally published as Australian Football Hall of Fame 2025: Nick Riewoldt reveals injury toll of football career with St Kilda