Former Dublin minor footballer and legendary Aussie Rules player Jim Stynes has announced he is battling cancer.
Stynes, who is now president of the Melbourne Demons, addressed the media today, with his wife Sam alongside him.
“I’m not stepping down from Melbourne,” he said. “I’m not walking away. But I will be taking a break and I’ll need to take the rest of the season off so I can focus on this and focus on my family."
The 43-year-old, who played 264 times for Melbourne, then elaborated on the circumstances surrounding his diagnosis.
“Three weeks ago I found I had a small lump on my back, just random. I found out it was cancerous so I was sent in to do a whole lot of follow up tests. I thought it might be located in that one area but it’s not. It’s spread quite a bit and I have a journey to go on.”
Stynes is the only non-Australian to receive a Brownlow medal, the highest individual honour in the AFL, after being considered the “best and fairest” player in the 1991 regular season.
His brother Brian won an All-Ireland title with Dublin in 1995.