The Panthers kept their coach’s diagnosis largely out of the public eye after he was hospitalised with blood clots on the lungs. But his wife has told of the toll it took on Ivan Cleary earlier this year | SMHsport
Two-time premiership-winning coach Ivan Cleary has detailed the mid-season health crisis which left him in intensive care with blood clots on his lungs, enough for his wife Bec to say it was “scary and as sick as I’ve seen him”.
“He’s never ever missed a day of coaching, whether he’s sick or not. This year I knew how sick he was because he couldn’t go to work. He watched over several training sessions while on crutches, but the Panthers largely kept his diagnosis private as assistants Cameron Ciraldo and Andrew Webster stepped up. Ciraldo and Webster will leave Penrith to take head coach roles next year.“It definitely got serious at one point and I had to miss a game because of that and then I couldn’t fly for a couple of weeks,” Ivan Cleary said.
“When I got the blood clots it was a bit of a scare, but I was in good hands. I had the best nurse in Australia [Bec] looking after me, so I was OK.”