Boyd Cordner is tough as teak ... but is his bravest play to just stop playing?

Roosters, NSW and Australia captain Boyd Cordner has been knocked out four times in ten weeks. If he was a boxer, you’d ban him from the ring. Is his bravest play to stop playing?

Concerned teammates attend to Boyd Cordner after the Roosters co-captain slammed his head on the ground attempting to score a try against the Knights Picture: Getty Images

Tuesday, 4.26pm. You scroll down the Sydney Roosters’ team sheet. No Tedesco. A Manu. A Tupou. A Morris. An Aubusson. Another Morris. A Keary. A Flanagan. Yada, yada, yada, and there it is. The name Boyd Cordner. There’s more apprehension than celebration. You would not wish his predicament on your most loathed and quarrelsome enemy.

Brave Cordner. It’s an impossible situation. Frightening stuff. He could play forever and be sweet, solving cryptic crosswords in his 80s. He could play one more game and pay dearly. He could retire and save his life. He could call it quits but then regret it for all his living days. Whatever he does, he cannot not know if he’s doing the right thing. There’s the impossibility of it. There’s the screaming headache to pile on top of all his other screaming headaches.

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Brave Cordner. What’s the bravest play here? To not play? Probably. He needs to be tough. Football demands it. But he needs to be smart. Life is short. Can you be tough and smart when it comes to head injuries? What’s real toughness, anyway? To soldier on, or to walk away? What’s real intelligence? To keep trying, or to protect one’s health at all costs?

If Cordner was a boxer, knocked senseless and motionless four times in 10 weeks, you’d never let him back in the ring. If he was a junior, if he was your son, you’d encourage him to pursue another sport.

The backdrop is harrowing. Eerie. His cousin Joel Dark died last week from a blow to the head in a game of rugby league in Newcastle. There was on-field seizure, emergency brain surgery, a critical condition in hospital, when Cordner paid a deeply emotional visit. But then, tragically, the loss of a 19-year-old life. Cordner is bold enough to barrel on. And yet he’s switched on enough to be seriously spooked.

Vision of Cordner going down and not getting up at the SCG last week, his face buried in the turf, his body twisted like a discarded rag doll, was confronting. His Roosters co-captain Jake Friend was seriously distressed. Forget pithy teammate comments about, oh, he’s the same old Boyd! That real-time footage of Friend, shouting urgently to Roosters’ medicos while both his hands were on the prone Cordner, said it all. Get up, Boyd. Boyd got on all fours. Could get no higher for a bit.

Get up, Boyd. Friend thought it. Luke Keary thought it. We all thought it. But Boyd wasn’t getting up. A giant of the NRL, the premiers’ co-captain, the NSW State of Origin captain, the Australia Test captain, had always done so. He’d gotten up for big occasions. Gotten up for significant triumphs in the colours of club, state and country. He’s built like granite, he’s brave beyond comprehension, but he was unable to get up, again, truly distressing for all those who admire him. Which is everyone.

Brave Cordner. Brain injuries attack top blokes as well as ratbags. Not fair. They don’t reveal themselves until it’s too late to prevent them. Bastards. For all Cordner knows, he has to stop playing. Immediately. For good. But for all Cordner knows, because it’s an area in which we don’t know everything, there’s nothing too serious going on. Hence the confounding predicament – it is impossible for him to do the right thing because nobody knows what that is. He was named on Tuesday for Saturday night’s brawl against the Sharks. James Tedesco will be rested.

The last two rounds have a no-care factor about them. The top eight is locked in, results don’t really matter, get back to us when the playoffs are on. Rabbitohs versus Bulldogs. Who cares! Panthers versus Cowboys! Eels versus Broncos. Who cares? Sea Eagles versus Titans. Who cares? They’re glorified training runs. The Roosters versus Sharks is the most interesting of the lot. For Cordner’s welfare. For a hint on whether the Sharks, eighth of the top eight, last among equals, are impostors when it comes to premiership contention.

Get up, Boyd. That will be the cry every time he goes down. The concern is that he’s being knocked out by relatively innocuous hits and incidents. One happened at training. He dived for a ball last week and that was enough to knock him out. No contact with another player, it was just a heavy fall. With each concussion, less is needed to cause another. But the damage is increased each time. Seeing him stumbling against Melbourne this season, doing everything he could to get up, unable to play the ball, needing to be held up by Josh Morris and Mitch Aubusson, squinting like he could not see, was harrowing. He’s had three incidents since then.

The Roosters have proven diligent in these matters. But it’s scarier now than ever for Cordner. Does he need protection from himself? Brave Cordner has been good for rugby league but the brutal truth is that rugby league may no longer be good for him.