Jonah squaring up to his hardest battle

Jonah Lomu will always be remembered for the explosive impact he made on the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the game as a whole, so to see him now is a shock, an emotional wrench, which makes you want to look away.

He lurches along, hunched up but smiling bravely… and he seems so small.

The man who so famously flattened Mike Catt in a four-try performance in the 1995 semi-final, weighed 120kg and stretched the tape to 1.96m, and who was responsible for generating the funds that have turned the like of Jonny Wilkinson into millionaires, in any currency, is now but a shadow of his former, giant self.

Lomu’s battle with kidney disease has been well chronicled but to meet him generates the same emotion as seeing a shambling, shaking Muhammad Ali. The contrast between the power and glory of their sporting lives and the battle they’re now facing is almost too hard to acknowledge; the unfairness appalling.

But the truth is that Lomu is very ill – a reality that is brought home with the force with which he used to smash opponents when seeing him at a store promotion in Sydney for Adidas, his sponsors.

Lomu is suffering from a rare kidney disorder known as nephrotic syndrome, a condition which according to his manager Phil Kingsley-Jones requires him to have five hours of dialysis every second day.

“He’s like a cellphone – he plugs himself in every day, charges up, and away he goes,” said Kingsley-Jones of a player who in his prime was arguably the most visible rugby player ever.

Lomu was swamped by fans for over an hour, signing autographs and posing for pictures, and seemed in good spirits but one can only imagine what pain he is suffering.

As Kingsley-Jones said: “Every day for him is like waking up with a massive hangover. But he is remarkably determined and the specialists who have seen him, given his condition, are amazed to see him up and about. They expect to see him lying in bed. It’s incredible what he’s been through to keep playing the game”

As the “Big Fella” was in such demand from fans gathered in Sydney’s main street, Kingsley-Jones filled in some more details of the setback which has struck down the player he describes as “not rugby’s greatest player but definitely rugby’s biggest star.”

Apart from his kidney problems Lomu, whose upper body and arms still ripple with muscle, is now also experiencing severe problems with the nerves in his feet and finds it very difficult to walk.

“Doctors say they can find a cure,” said Kingsley-Jones, “but for the moment it’s either dialysis or a kidney transplant. But the trouble with a transplant is that the new organ is fitted in the front of the body and with that it might be impossible to play rugby but with dialysis it is possible to play rugby. He is determined to play again.” The dialysis treatment can control his illness, cleansing his blood of impurities, but only a transplant can offer the hope of a return to a normal life.

Wherever Lomu travels arrangements have to be made for his dialysis treatment and he has now got beyond the stage where medication helped his condition. “He took nine months off from rugby to try to cure it, and did come back, but it hit him again. There was an illegal drug he could have taken but that is something he refused to do,” said Kingsley-Jones.

“Even Jonah can’t tell how he’s going to feel. In his best playing days it was like pulling a sled behind him,” Kingsley-Jones added.

Lomu, who is only 28, was first diagnosed with nephrotic disease (which apparently is more common among Polynesians) in 1997. He has been offered a contract by the NZRFU, “but only if he is fit by February,” said Kingsley-Jones.

The man whose performances in the 1995 World Cup in all probability generated the enormous injection of television rights funds from Newscorp that led to the formation of Sanzar, the Tri-Nations and the Super 12 (Rupert Murdoch is said to have remarked: “Get me that man”) is now faced with massive medical costs.

Kingsley-Jones revealed that Wales have offered to stage a benefit match against a Jonah Lomu XV, one that Lomu would like to play in, but seeing evidence of the ravages of his illness make that seem most unlikely.

So while others tread the world stage that helped to create Lomu, he is hoping just to play rugby again, to get back on the field… any field.

One can only hope that the brotherhood of rugby, if it really exists, will rally round him.