NRL 2021: Wests Tigers utility Michael Chee-Kam opens up on his horror run with head knocks

Wests Tigers utility Michael Chee-Kam has suffered two serious concussions in as many seasons and while his family has urged to him to retire, he’s eyeing off a milestone.

Michael Chee-Kam, not so long ago, finally sat down to watch the movie Concussion.

“And, bro, it rattled me,” he concedes.

“I just sat there going ‘oh, wow’.”

Although not because anything presented was new to him.

No, the concern for this Wests Tigers utility as he watched Hollywood’s Will Smith portray Dr Bennet Omalu — that forensic pathologist who, now famously, discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in the brains of dead American footballers — was how real, how personal, this story had suddenly become.

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West Tigers utility Michael Chee-Kam is edging closer to playing 100 NRL games. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“Because with my own most recent concussion,” Chee-Kam continues, “the neurosurgeon said it was like a car crash.

“Got me right on the sweet spot, too.

“And apparently with massive impacts like that, everyone responds differently.

“Some people, they just go to sleep.

“But unfortunately for me ... yeah, I had a seizure on live television.”

Speaking outside Wests Tigers HQ on a sunny Wednesday morning, Chee-Kam is talking The Saturday Telegraph through a story that, while largely untold, has now seen him go consecutive winters as a leading contender for the crown of ‘Most Violent NRL Concussion’.

Not that looking at him, you would know.

Just as there is nothing of concern in the words of this tattooed Christian who, aged 29, and living on the northern beaches with wife Alex, speaks so passionately about family, faith and that latest of personal goals keeping him awake at night.

“With 15 more matches, I become a 100-game NRL player,” Chee-Kam will tell you excitedly. “Early on in my career, I never thought I’d play half that many.

“But now, it’s so close.

“I lay awake at night thinking about it”.

Yet as for wife Alex? Or Chee-Kam’s parents Ben and Sene?

Michael Chee-Kam was taken from the field after being concussed in a tackle at Bankwest Stadium. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Well, what they think about most is the ongoing health of a loved one who, during Round 11 last year, lay sprawled unconscious on Bankwest Stadium, his body convulsing, after an attempted tackle on Parramatta’s Shaun Lane went real bad, real quick.

So distressing was the footage of Chee-Kam, TV executives cut the broadcast as trainers raced to his side.

“But it was just a freak accident,” the Samoan international says now of a tackle which, coming off the Tigers interchange bench, occurred within minutes of him taking the field.

“My head just collided with Lane’s hip.

“Right on the hardest bone in the human body.”

So as for what Chee-Kam remembers?

“Waking up in a little room beneath Bankwest Stadium,” he continues. “Right before I was stretchered to the ambulance.”

Which is only slightly different to a year earlier, when this unlucky leaguie was again knocked cold — this time by a wayward tackle from Newcastle star Kalyn Ponga.

“That time I woke up in the ambulance,” Chee-Kam says. “I remember going for the ball, then ‘oooooooh’ ... woke up headed for hospital.

“But again, big collision.

“He basically shoulder-charged my head.”

Which, unsurprisingly, has caused some issues for this gutsiest of Tigers who, over the past eight months alone, has worked closely with two neurosurgeons as they cleared him, first, of any ongoing trauma, then epilepsy, while also conducting a strenuous range of testing — including an electroencephalogram (EEG).

Michael Chee-Kam says he has no ongoing symptoms after his concussion last season. Picture: AAP

“Mum and my wife, they don’t want me to play,” he concedes.

“Even dad has asked ‘what do you reckon son, do you want to keep going?’.

“Honestly, I never thought he would be one of the people asking me to stop.

“But I understand.

“They’re just scared it could happen again.”

But the man himself?

“I’ve done all the testing,” he stresses.

“The biggest one was about a month after that Lane tackle — I had to go without food, water and sleep for 24 hours.

“I had to put my brain under stress before I went in to see how I reacted to flashing lights and things like that.

“And, thankfully, I’ve got no ongoing symptoms.

“Unfortunately, I just got my head in the wrong place twice. And both times the impact has been massive.”

Indeed, while Chee-Kam returned to play only six days after the Ponga hit — the same one which saw him knocked out, wake in an ambulance and ask wife Alex four times ‘Did we win?’ — the Lane collision saw him outed eight weeks and warned, among a host of other concerns, that he may not even be able to drive a car for 12 months.

So as for ever watching a replay?

“I’ve watched it twice,” he says. “But no more. It’s scary.

Michael Chee-Kam receives attention after suffering a head knock in a match against the Knights in 2019. Picture: AAP

“Although I understand that’s rugby league.

“It’s a dangerous sport, and I love playing it.

“I also know you can’t live your life in fear, either.

“I know (the threat of concussion) is there.

“That it could happen again.

“Just as I could have an accident in my car, or get hit walking down the street.

“But I haven’t second-guessed anything because I’ve been through all the testing.”

At which point we ask Chee-Kam if, just maybe, he could be the forgotten man in this increasingly scrutinised concussion debate?

Wondering aloud if his issues would be more heavily discussed if, say, he were Roosters halfback Luke Keary, whose own head knocks have attracted countless headlines, or NSW Origin skipper Boyd Cordner, currently sidelined indefinitely because of continuing knocks.

“No, because I’m not in that same category,” Chee-Kam insists.

“Other than those two incidents, I’ve never had a head knock before.

“Nothing.

“I’ve just been unlucky enough to get my head in the wrong place twice — and both impacts have been massive.”

Michael Chee-Kam is a key member of the Wests Tigers’ squad. Picture: Brett Costello

Which is why, despite how Concussion made him feel, Chee-Kam is now getting on with preparations for another NRL season.

Always cautious, sure.

Keen too, for whatever new medical advice becomes available.

But just as this fella initially left Auckland for a chance with Melbourne Storm, just as he then humped a swag through Canberra, Manly and now Wests Tigers chasing opportunity, so now he wants only to train hard, pray often and remind family of those myriad tests saying everything is OK.

Oh, yeah, earning another NRL contract would be nice.

Same deal, those 15 games.

After all, this is what keeps him awake at night.

Originally published as NRL 2021: Wests Tigers utility Michael Chee-Kam opens up on his horror run with head knocks