Souths superstar Cody Walker has opened up on the "scary" extent of his horror head knock in the dying moments of Origin III, revealing he has no memory of the night prior to "coming to" on the plane back home.
Walker was stretchered off Suncorp Stadium after he was knocked out cold in a sickening friendly-fire collision during Queensland's series-clinching victory in Brisbane.
Surprisingly the Blues playmaker was seen up-and-about shaking hands shortly after full-time, leading many to assume that the collision looked worse than it was.
However, speaking exclusively to Wide World of Sports, Walker revealed that wasn't the case as he detailed a worrying 12 hours in which his only concern was his family.
"I can't really remember what happened in Game Three with the head knock," Walker told Wide World of Sports. "I think I tackled Cherry-Evans and I think I might of caught Gussy's (Angus Crichton) hip. It was a really awkward type of tackle.
"I can't really remember too much after the game and in the sheds. I've seen footage of me walking around shaking hands and I can't remember any of that.
"I remember coming to on the plane home, and I sort of caught myself. I sort of just had a moment where I remembered where I was and what I was doing. It was quite scary. When I got back to the hotel I didn't sleep. We got back at about 3am and I stayed up the rest of the night.
"The biggest thing I was worried about was my kids because they didn't come to Brisbane, I was worried about my missus. I spoke to her after the game and don't remember any of that.
"When I got home I sat the kids down before they woke up. They hadn't watched the game, they were asleep by the time I'd been knocked out. I woke them up and then showed them the vision of me getting knocked out so when they got to school they knew what was happening. That's all I was pretty much worried about.
"The next day I had all my head assessments, and everything was cleared and everything was back to normal which is great."
At the time of Walker's head knock, NSW had already lost their captain and star fullback James Tedesco in a similar incident.
Teammate Damien Cook was seen rushing in to check on Walker who was left face down and motionless, even holding his hand in the scary scene.
It was a worrying sign that Walker wasn't able to walk off the field, and after the game coach Brad Fittler gave an update to media.
"Cody is on the phone to his wife at the moment, so that's a good sign," Fittler said in his post-match press conference.
"He's a bit vague on a lot of the game at the moment. It'll be monitored over the next day or so, but it was a heavy knock."
Walker's partner Nellie also shared a post on the Blues star's Instagram story shortly after the incident.
https://twitter.com/nrlphysio/status/1329062081723650049"Hi everyone, it's Nellie. I've just spoken with Cody and he's asked me to let you all know he's alright," the post read.
"Thank you to everyone for checking in on him and all the messages and well wishes."
Walker represented the Indigenous All-Stars over the weekend scoring the match-tying penalty to draw 10-10 with the Maori All-Stars.
He'll form an integral part of the Bunnies spine when he lines up this weekend against the Dragons in Souths' first official NRL trial in Mudgee.
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/cody-walker-state-of-origin-concussion-revealed/b344b407-41cd-4888-b4ba-42b3909b4a63
0 Comments