What he says he didn’t expect was that after only a short break, they would be made to run for another two kilometres. Having already “emptied the tank”, he produced a time well in excess of 10 minutes.
So when they were told to get back on the line for a third go, Perrett knew he was in for pain. However, he didn’t anticipate what happened next.
Lloyd Perrett of Manly is assisted from the field during a game in 2017.Credit: Getty
“I remember running the first two laps and then my memory is gone until I wake up in hospital,” he recalls.
Perrett didn’t know why he was there. The medical staff asked him the obligatory questions: Did he know his name? Did he know why he was there?
Struggling to respond, he thought he had completed a gym session with his then-fiancee at Varsity Lakes in Queensland. He figured he may have fallen off a treadmill.
“I had seven medical staff around me, this woman shoving ice cubes in my throat. I asked her if I could have water and I couldn’t have water,” Perrett says.
“People were pretty frantic around me so I was pretty scared. I knew something was going on. I tried to lift my arm and my leg and they wouldn’t move. It felt like you’re fishing, you’re snagged on the rocks and you just can’t pull the rod up. I was like ‘something is going on here’.”
Perrett was told his situation was serious. “I was comatose,” he says. “Six out of 10 people die in this situation, that’s what the nurse told me when I was in hospital.”
Perrett claims he has never physically or mentally recovered from the ordeal. The former Bulldog managed to play in the NRL again – his last match was for the Sea Eagles in the 2019 finals – but he was never the same player or person.
In the months immediately after the incident, his training load was no greater than walking.
“The first few weeks coming out of hospital, watching TV would make me spew up,” he says. “Driving the car would make me spew. In the middle of the night I had pains in my shoulders.
Lloyd Perrett in 2019.Credit: Getty
“At one point the doctor told me you’ve got rhabdo [rhabdomyolysis], you’re going to die, you need to get to the hospital. It’s pretty scary stuff. Somebody explained it to me, it’s a breakdown in muscle tissue that releases a damaging protein into the blood.
“I woke up in the middle of the night having crazy aches going down my neck and through my shoulder. My arms would ache, it radiated, it would come in waves … Even to this day when I wake up in the morning, my joints kill. That never used to happen before.”
Perrett said that, in his first full team session the following January, he collapsed again. Then-teammate Brian Kelly helped him to a tree after he was suffering vision issues. Shortly afterwards, he was administered an oxygen tank and then placed in an ice bath.
Perrett would later seek the opinion of an independent doctor, who put him through a battery of tests while he walked on a treadmill.
“There are other ways to test someone’s mental resilience and all that. Let’s not kill our young, talented superstars.”
Lloyd Perrett
“They said I had the blood markers of a 60-year-old diabetic woman,” he says. As he was trying to salvage his career, his mental health deteriorated.
“I became much more anxious, I was even suicidal at points,” he says. “If it wasn’t for my parents, I would have taken my own life. If it wasn’t for my parents or my wife … I considered myself to be worthless, I considered ending my own life. Then the next year again, 2019, which I think was my last year on contract, I went through the same thing.
“I pretty much felt like I was getting better, I was feeling more confident physically and mentally and then it would crash as well … I had everything, I was paid well, I had one son and a daughter and I was in a place where I didn’t know where I belonged. My mental health struggled, I still struggle with it. Especially in regards to sports and trying to exercise as well. I get scared and anxious of other people’s opinions, that type of thing.
“The height that I’ve fallen from, I feel embarrassed about that type of thing as well. Obviously, my body, I gained so much weight. I was probably about 118kg-121kg that year and I was really comfortable and happy with that weight.
The coroner’s findings in the death of Sea Eagles player Keith Titmuss will be made public on Friday.Credit: NRL Photos
“After heatstroke, the next year at Manly I was 130kg-132kg, I really struggled to lose weight. The doctors told me it makes sense because I had really poor blood markers, my body is not healthy and we need to help it more. I gained a lot of weight, had poor kidney, liver and thyroid function. That was pretty much the results of what my blood tests told me. I believe it’s from the trauma I went through.”
Only in February, during Titmuss’ public coronial inquest, did Perrett resolve to proceed with legal action. The coroner’s findings in the Titmuss matter will be made public on Friday.
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“I spoke to an occupational therapist and they said it’s survivor’s guilt,” Perrett says. “I was feeling really sad and upset [about Titmuss]. Not only did he not survive and I did, but he was my teammate and I knew him. He was only 18 years old when I was there … it was like a little brother type of thing.
“I feel I need to do this. It’s not about money, it’s not about me. I put my ego aside because I know people are going to tease me, they already are. They’re saying I’m just a wash-up, I’m not good enough, that I’m trying to get money and all that. But it’s about player safety.”
None of the staffers who oversaw the session in question remain at the Sea Eagles. The club declined to comment.
The development comes just a week after former Canterbury forward Jackson Topine commenced a $4 million legal action against the Bulldogs, claiming he was subjected to “assault” when forced to wrestle up to 35 teammates during a training session last year.
Perrett says he was taking the action to honour Titmuss and Benkato “Kato” Ottio, a PNG international who died during a training session. The likely cause of Ottio’s death was exertional heatstroke.
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“Out of the three, I’m the only one who survived,” Perrett says. “When I saw the ‘Keithy’ thing, it was the last straw. That was reaffirmed to me and told me, ‘You have to do this.’ It’s not about yourself, don’t worry about what people are going to say. You need to improve this for players in the future.’
“I’m in construction now. There is tape around everything you do. You have to have what they call a safe-work method statement. You need to have that submitted before we can step onto a worksite. There is none of that in rugby league.
“They can tell you to do whatever they want you to do. And because you’re a young, impressionable athlete who wants to be in the NRL, you do whatever they say.
“That’s my motivation. In honour of the boys who have passed away, for the protection and safety of the young players coming up through the ranks. There are other ways to test someone’s mental resilience and all that. Let’s not kill our young, talented superstars.”
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