In the heat of battle, Alex Walmsley takes a look at the tape above his wrist, where he finds three handwritten letters which give him the strength to carry on.
When the 6ft 5in, 18st colossus, one of the finest props of a generation, slumped to the turf in 2018 with a suspected broken neck after mistiming a tackle — and wondered if he would ever play again — his inspiration came from the same place.
‘Mum,’ St Helens’ enforcer tells Sportsmail. ‘I write it there before every game. If I’m feeling sorry for myself, if I’ve taken a knock or am tired, I don’t need to look far.’
Alex Walmsley said his mother remains an inspiration throughout daily life and on the field
Alex was 10 when Marceline Walmsley took him aside at his aunt’s house and gave him the news that she had cancer. ‘I burst into tears,’ he recalls, 22 years on. ‘As a kid you think that’s it, that she’s going to die.’
For 13 years, Marceline fought. On multiple occasions, and against doctors’ orders, she discharged herself from St James’s Hospital in Leeds and headed for the touchline as her boy made a name for himself in the amateur game. ‘It became a running joke,’ Walmsley says. ‘She’d be in for chemotherapy but she’d come out and watch me and my brother Liam play for Dewsbury Celtic and then readmit herself. The doctors knew her well enough by the end and knew nothing would stop her.’
Keeping it normal for their three children is something she and Walmsley’s dad, John, devoted their lives to. It was not easy.
Walmsley, one of the best props for a generation, has experienced great pain in his life
‘Dad has been poorly pretty much all my life,’ Walmsley says. ‘He has a rare condition where the immune system attacks the skin, muscles and hands and is heavily disabled. But there was no passing the burden. We had an amazing upbringing because they were brave. We were loved.’
In late 2013, having seen her youngest sign for one of the sport’s biggest clubs, Marceline passed away. ‘It was quick in the end and that was hard,’ he says. ‘Your parents are superheroes and because she kept getting past it, you think she’s going to be there for ever. She had breast cancer but it went all over her body.’
A year later Walmsley was called by New Zealand Warriors, from the cash-flush NRL, who had triggered his release clause and wanted to give him a 50 per cent pay rise.
‘My rugby is a huge part of my dad’s life,’ he says. ‘He watches every game but he’d never get insured to travel Down Under. Me taking that away from him — I couldn’t have justified it.’ Walmsley, who has two children, said no. ‘I still tell my dad he owes me a fortune!’ he laughs.
Alex Walmsley during the Challenge Cup semi final at Elland Road earlier this month
We are speaking at the home of rivals Warrington, who are hosting an event for Super League’s Tackle the Tough Stuff campaign, which encourages people to speak out about mental health issues. It is also where Walmsley broke his neck in 2018.
‘It was stupid,’ he says. ‘Something I’d never done before, under fatigue.’ Surgery — which carried the prospect of not walking again — followed. There were dark days and Walmsley sought support. ‘I’d created a monster in my head,’ he says. ‘There was anxiety about that first contact. I spoke a lot with Dave Kirk, St Helens’ psychotherapist. Getting it out got that monster smaller. Mental health is huge in sport. Talking about it helps. There’s a stigma that needs to be overcome. We are portrayed as these big, aggressive men but we all have insecurities.’
This season Saints are seeking a historic fourth Grand Final triumph in a row. If they do it, Walmsley will again look to his hand.
Walmsley was speaking at Warrington’s home for the Tackle the Tough Stuff campaign day
‘Mum loved jewellery and when you win you get a ring,’ he says. ‘I always think, “That’s another for mum”.
‘I know in reality she’s not there but to me she’s never missed a game.’
For more information visit superleague.co.uk/wellbeing.
Maurice Lindsay, the architect of Wigan’s golden era in the 1980s and a former chief executive of the Rugby Football League, has died aged 81. Wigan said their former chairman, under whose leadership they won eight league titles, ‘will be forever remembered as a visionary’.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
