Rob Burrow had barely had a chance to start the next chapter of his career when he was struck by motor neurone disease.
The Leeds Rhinos great hung up his boots at the end of the 2017 season and was set to coach the club’s academy team when news broke that he was suffering from the terminal illness.
Thoughts inevitably turned to his long and illustrious playing career, which saw the 6ft 4in Burrow take some terrible head knocks as big, clumsy forwards struggled to get their hands on the running half-back.
Each time, Burrow got up after an on-site medical check and carried on regardless, showing no sign of hostility towards his attacker and instead treating it as just another challenge in the rough, tough world of rugby league.
With such stoicism, Burrow threw himself into his next challenge, staving off the progression of a disease that attacks the nerves that control movement, rendering the muscles increasingly useless.
Burrow was just 37 and had three children under the age of eight with his wife Lindsey when he announced he had ALS on December 19, 2019.
Sports fans, especially those from rugby league, responded by raising more than £160,000 in four days for Burrow’s fight.
In mid-January a sell-out crowd of almost 20,000 turned out at Headingley for a joint charity match with former teammate Jamie Jones-Buchanan and there was hardly a dry eye as Burrow played the final five minutes. .
However, the overwhelming sense of pity fans may have felt was the last thing Burrow wanted as he bravely faced the media within hours of breaking the terrible news.
“The worst thing for me is that people feel sorry for me,” he said. “I know it’s coming, but I want to be as normal as ever.
“Although I am physically fit and strong and healthy, I want to do normal things and not be treated differently.”
Burrow’s first task was to travel to Scotland to meet Doddie Weir, another larger-than-life rugby figure who had been diagnosed with ALS two and a half years earlier and who had set the bar high in his efforts to raise awareness of the disease. paralyzing condition.
Burrow, who brushes aside suggestions that his ALS was a direct result of an increase in head impacts, showed his trademark graciousness and courage as he put himself through a grueling series of interviews, even apologizing for the state of his voice which are all the consequences of the disease.
Barrie McDermott, a former teammate, said at the time: “The thing about Rob is that the status he had as a player is certainly not the same as his status as a person.
“He fought adversity throughout his career because of his size and came out the other side with so many trophies.”
By the summer of 2020, Burrow had lost his voice and started typing answers to questions using his eye-gaze machine, which used his voice from old rugby interviews.
By January 2021, he had lost the use of his hands and arms and began using a wheelchair after his legs became very weak, but his resolve never to give in was growing stronger.
An emotional BBC documentary, ‘Rob Burrow – My Year with MND’, helped achieve his aim to raise awareness of the disease, as did the remarkable achievement of his long-time captain Kevin Sinfield, who ran seven marathons in seven days , which also raised £2.7 million.
Sinfield raised a further £1m-plus in November 2021 with a 101-mile run in 24 hours from his new club Leicester Tigers to Headingley, while his Ultra 7 in 7 Challenge completed seven consecutive ultra-marathons the following November , which raised over £1.4 million.
In May 2023, Sinfield carried Burrow across the finish line at the inaugural Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon after pushing his great friend the 26.2 miles, while in December he continued his remarkable fundraising efforts by running seven ultramarathons in seven different cities across the United States . the same number of days.
Leeds plan to recognize the achievements of both Burrow and Sinfield with a statue to be erected in Headingley.
Burrow’s strength in adversity was documented in his autobiography ‘Too Many Reasons To Live’, which won second prize in the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, and he was awarded an MBE in the 2021 New Year Honors just days after he had been initiated. inducted into the Leeds Hall of Fame. He was appointed CBE, along with Sinfield, for services to MND awareness in the 2024 New Year Honours.
Burrow received the Helen Rollason Award at the 2022 BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony, where he paid tribute to his ‘MND hero’ Weir, who had passed away the month before.
He was chief guest at the 2020 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley in which Leeds defeated Salford, which he was unable to attend due to the pandemic, but he was at Old Trafford in October 2021 to present the Harry Sunderland Trophy at the Grand Final man of the match, an award he himself had won twice.
His astonishing trophy haul also includes no fewer than eight Grand Final victories, while the one-club man won the Challenge Cup twice and boasted three World Club Challenges with his beloved Rhinos.
He is fifth on Leeds’ all-time appearance list, with 1,103 points from 492 games from 2001 until his retirement in 2017, and won 15 England caps and made five appearances for Great Britain.
Of his 196 tries, he will be most remembered for his long-range running effort against St Helens in 2011, in which he ducked Tony Puleta’s challenge, evaded James Roby’s tackle and accelerated away from the clutches. by Paul Wellens.
That devastating combination of power, elusiveness and pace perfectly summed up the career of one of rugby league’s all-time greats.
He died Sunday at the age of 41 and is survived by Lindsey and children Macy, Maya and Jackson.