Ty Zantuck wins legal bid to sue for compensation over back injuries and suspected degenerative brain disease

The Supreme Court has reached a landmark decision in the case of ex-AFL player Ty Zantuck, who is suing Richmond for compensation.

A former AFL player has won a legal bid to sue the Richmond football club for compensation over debilitating back injuries and a suspected degenerative brain disease in a landmark decision that could pave the way for future claims.

Ty Zantuck, who played 68 games for the Tigers in the early 2000s, was on Tuesday granted an extension of time by the Supreme Court to launch action against the football club he claims had “no adequate system” for responding to or managing concussion injuries despite the relevant science and medical knowledge available at the time.

Mr Zantuck, 40, claims he was allowed to continue to train and play AFL despite suffering repeated on-field head knocks which had not properly healed.

The former defender also claims he received between 15-20 epidurals, as well as dozens of local anaesthetic injections during his career with Richmond in a bid to keep him playing.

Mr Zantuck claims he was allowed to continue to train and play AFL despite suffering repeated on-field head knocks.

On Tuesday, Justice Mary-Jane Ierodiaconou ruled the alleged conduct of the football club was “egregious” and had effectively left Mr Zantuck’s “life crippled” and it was reasonable the extension be granted despite the events occurring almost two decades ago.

In April last year, the former footballer launched civil action against his old club, seeking damages for a serious back injury, but later broadened the lawsuit to include the new “brain claim”.

Lawyers acting for Mr Zantuck told the court they had been reviewing footage of old AFL matches in late 2021 when they noticed “evidence of repeated concussions” and recommended he see a doctor.

In September, Mr Zantuck was diagnosed with traumatic encephalopathy syndrome, indicating probably chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), his lawyer Lachlan Armstrong QC told the court.

Mr Zantuck is seeking damages for a serious back injury.

CTE is a progressive degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma and can only be diagnosed post-mortem.

Mr Zantuck alleges he suffers depression, rage episodes, early on-set dementia and loss of life expectancy as a result of the traumatic brain injuries.

Richmond football club and the doctors Gregory Hickey and Christopher Bradshaw are defending the claims.

The court previously heard Mr Zantuck had met with a law firm almost a decade earlier about his back injuries. They told him there was “nothing the solicitors could do to assist him because no one had ever successfully sued the AFL and its clubs”.

“I’m still traumatised by the whole thing,” Mr Zantuck told a previous hearing.

He alleged the doctors at the football club got his treatment “horribly wrong” and the injections had “ruined the muscles in my body”.

“I still love the Richmond Football Club, my two sons barrack for them,” Mr Zantuck said.

“I just think they got the treatment horribly wrong,” he said.

Mr Zantuck claimed he had sought advice from the AFL players association in about 2006 about his injuries, who told him he had “no chance of making a successful claim against the club”.

The court also heard the former Tiger approached law firm Slater and Gordon in 2012 following the first major surgery on his back.

“He was advised to the effect that there was nothing the solicitors could do to assist him because no-one had ever successfully sued the AFL and its clubs,” Tuesday’s judgement stated.

Justice Ierodiaconou approved the extension of time, finding Mr Zantuck had acted “reasonably” in seeking advice.

Her Honour found there was no delay in respect of his concussion claim as “this time of claim does not manifest until many years after the person has suffered an injury that leads to dislocation of brain tissue”.

In court documents, Mr Zantuck said his back injury stemmed from a training camp in the Grampians in 2001 where he was required to carry a 30kg backpack despite earlier being diagnosed with stress fractures to his lower back.

The former defender claims he was denied dispensation to complete the training by a club doctor, save that he was allowed to swap to a 15-20kg backpack.

Justice Ierodiaconou said the consequences of Mr Zantuck’s injuries were “unquestionably very serious”.

“He has effectively had his life crippled by his back injury,” Justice Ierodiaconou said.