- Star moved from the Brisbane Broncos to the Fox Sports team
- He suffered first-degree burns just before the biggest game of the year.
Brisbane Broncos Fox Sports great analyst Corey Parker has revealed the first-degree facial burns that prevented him from commentating on this year’s NRL grand final.
The veteran of 347 NRL games was enjoying a country holiday with family and friends when a burn went seriously wrong.
“I was on a mate’s farm and there were some old cane halls we were burning down,” Parker explained.
‘One cane hall fell into the fire, then we threw another into the fire and it rolled away.
“I instinctively moved to put it back on the fire, but when I grabbed the lounge, it really caught fire and the flames reached my arm.
‘Then I felt a huge blast of heat hit my face. It was like opening the door of an oven and receiving the heat.
“It was a more intense version of that and it immediately hurt.”
Parker said news corporation He did not seek professional medical treatment and flew to Sydney to take part in the grand final the day after the accident.
Corey Parker suffered first-degree burns to his face and arm in an accident on a colleague’s farm
Brisbane Broncos great (pictured with wife Margaux) was sent home when he appeared to commentate on the NRL grand final earlier this month.
Parker opened up about another health battle earlier this year when he said he has “no doubt” he suffers from a fatal brain disease.
“I thought the makeup artists were going to do some makeup on me, but they looked at me and said, ‘No, we’re not going to touch your face,’ so I flew back home,” she said.
Parker applied an antibiotic cream to the burns to protect against infection and said all of his skin had peeled off within a few days, adding that he has now made a full recovery.
The former Queensland State of Origin star revealed another health battle in February this year when he said he is certain he is suffering from a fatal illness linked to concussions and blows to the head.
Parker said he has “no doubt” he is suffering from the effects of the deadly brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
CTE is a degenerative brain disorder that has strong links to repeated blows to the head and can only be diagnosed after death.
It can cause dementia, personality changes, and suicidal thoughts, and there is no cure or treatment.
“This CTE is the word that’s obviously being used and rightly so: It’s real,” Parker said.
‘I have no doubt; I have no doubt in my tenure as a rugby league player that I have symptoms, I have symptoms of CTE.
But it is something that cannot be understood until, obviously, post-mortem.
“You can’t expect to play a sport with a lot of collisions, (and) for (about) 20 of those years at a high level, and not have some kind of side effects.
“You can try and manage different things, but the damage has already been done, right?”