AFL goalkicking great Brendan Fevola has been given a sharp reminder not to take his health for granted after a scary heart episode. The 43-year-old realised something wasn’t right when he was struggling to breathe while walking up the 1000 Steps trail at Mount Dandenong with a friend. While his mate was chatting away with ease during the walk, the former Carlton and Brisbane full forward could hardly draw breath, let alone talk as well.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Alarmed, he went straight to a doctor for a blood test. “I went and got a health check. I think it’s important for all people to go get health checks but especially for males over 40,” he said on Fox FM.
“Because men, (we) usually just don’t worry about it. I’ll be like, ‘Oh my heart’s sore, it’ll go away’, and that’s mentally what we think because we’re stupid people. “But I did go do the 1000 Steps the other day and I’ve got this heart app on my phone, and I got halfway up and I literally couldn’t breathe.
” Strangely though, despite feeling out of breath as his cardiovascular system was working overtime, the app was telling him his heart rate was sitting comfortably at 63, which would be quite a normal resting heart rate for a fit adult. “You put your finger on it and it gets your pulse, and it was like 63(bpm) or something — it was the lowest it’s ever been. So, we just both thought I was fit,” Fevola continued.
“Then when I got home, I told Alex. .