Huxley targets miracle comeback
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Huxley targets miracle comeback
Print Wayne Smith | April 17, 2008
SIX hours spent wide awake while a neurosurgeon removed a tumour from his brain gave Julian Huxley time to reach a decision. He wants to play rugby again.
The 28-year-old Wallabies and Brumbies fullback had his life turned upside down when scans taken after he went into convulsions on the field early in a Super 14 match last month led to the discovery of a tumour.
He admitted yesterday the odds against him playing again were staggering.
"A decision on whether I play rugby again is a long way off, but people like Lance Armstrong (the American cyclist who went on to win the Tour de France seven times in succession after overcoming testicular cancer) have shown what is possible if you believe," Huxley said yesterday from his home in Canberra.
"I'd love to play again the game I love, but time will tell whether that's a stupid call. It might be different coming back in a non-contact sport like cycling - although I guess any cyclist who goes nose-first into the bitumen might not think of it as a non-contact sport.
"The surgeons have told me it (a comeback) would be a bit risky, but then surgeons always err on the side of caution."
Although his craniotomy went well, with the anaesthetist putting him through simple strength tests throughout the operation to make certain that the removal of the tumour did not cause any loss of movement down the left side of his body affected by the growth, he is not yet out of the woods.
The biopsy revealed that while most of the tumour was benign, some cells were dividing and Huxley will be subjected to six weeks of radiotherapy in the hope of arresting the spread of cancer.
"It's not too bad a prognosis," he said. "Now I've got to do the radiation and see what comes of it. Being in the neuro ward (at Sydney's North Shore Private Hospital), you see a lot of people a lot worse off than me.
"Obviously I'd prefer not to have this, but when you see some of the things others have to battle with, you quickly realise your problems aren't too bad. There was one young bloke, 32, that I became mates with. He had Parkinson's. He was diagnosed with it at 16 and he was just the happiest bloke."
Huxley admitted the thought of staying awake through brain surgery initially freaked him, but he quickly realised that this represented his best chance.
"It was a safety net to make sure they didn't hurt me. But I was very comfortable in my mind of coming out the same way I went in. The surgeon (Ray Cooke) inspired a lot of confidence in me from the moment I met him.
"I don't know if my golf swing is going to be affected. I'm starting to get more co-ordination back as the swelling of the brain goes down. I'm practising my guitar to work on my fine motor skills, but I'm a bit clumsy at the moment.
"I don't think my speech or my moods were ever at risk. I feel myself and that's good. Hopefully the co-ordination will come. I guess when you're a professional athlete, you take the co-ordination for granted. Not any more.
"Basically there's no real way of telling if it's been a success. If I'm still here in 10 years, it's been successful."
As traumatic and even terrifying as his journey has been over the past six weeks, Huxley claimed he would happily relive it just to experience again the flood of support he has received from the rugby community. "A number of critics have been writing recently about what rugby has lost since the game went professional. Well, players do play for money now but you couldn't do it if you didn't love the game and what it stands for.
"The great thing about going through all this is that it has shown me just how strong the camaraderie is in the game. You saw it the other night in the Waratahs-Force game when Lote Tuqiri went to Matt Giteau's aid on the field, just as Morgan Turinui and Chris Latham did for me when I went into convulsions in the game against the Reds.
"All the stuff I used to say about rugby as mere rhetoric I now believe in my bones. You hear of parents who don't want their child playing rugby because he or she might get hurt. If a child is wanting to play footy and his parents are stopping him for fear he might break his wrist or skin his knee, they should think again. They're depriving him of a network of friends for life and that's a whole lot worse than breaking a bone or hurting a knee.
"I've gained so much from playing rugby nearly all my life but I've gained the most over the past month. I feel really passionate about the sport now and about telling people what a great game it is, not just for how much fun it is but for how much it offers you outside the game itself."
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"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau." 
Aus's little legend
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