The Interview: Anthony Mundine (Page 2)

We�ll talk about how this all started shortly, but what have you had to endure?

Mate, you don�t�..I�ve had to endure something I�ve�..of anything that�s happened in my life, this has been the worst. Especially the early stages.

The (doctors) thought I was going to lose my eye. The infection was that bad. They wanted to take a biopsy out of the central part of my cornea, which would have kept me legally blind for the rest of my life.

So, I�ve been through the wars. I�ve left it in God�s hands. I�ve had faith in my creator. If it�s His plan, it�s His plan.

But I really feel I�m not finished yet.

Wasn�t there a stage where you had to have eye drops every half hour?

Yeah, the first three days were intense. Intense for the first week, actually. The first three days it was drops every half hour, 24 hours (a day).

No sleep…

No sleep. And that�s three different drops, not just one drop. So, you put one drop, wait two minutes, put another drop, wait two minutes, then another drop. So, it was literally every twenty four minutes. For three days.

Then the fourth day was every hour. The fifth day was every hour.

The first day I had a sleep was on the sixth day, from 10pm until 6am. Then it started again. Then (the drops) went to every two hours.

There�s been so many drops, I just didn�t want to talk about it. I was so aggravated. I was sending nurses out of the room. The drops they had me on were very toxic, they were tearing my eye apart.

Is it true you weren�t given a correct prognosis initially?

They never found out what it was, still don�t know. It looked like fungus, so they were treating me for fungus. They were desperate to try and find out what the bug was, so they took a biopsy from the top and bottom of my cornea, yet still they couldn�t find anything. That�s why they wanted to take the biopsy out of the centre of my eye. A big chunk. I said �Hell, no. This is my livelihood. This is my life. It�s in God�s hands. Matter a fact, I’m not going to have any more of your drops.�

I cut it off (the drops) myself.

Then it was a Godsend that came. A Professor came and looked outside the square. She treated me for a rare bacterial type infection. Come the next Monday, they couldn�t find any more bugs�

So that was it?

That was pretty much it. It�s been all downhill from there.

This all happened because - and correct me if I�m wrong � you licked a contact lens and put it back in your eye. Is that correct?

Yes.

How does a professional athlete let that happen? Especially someone as meticulous as a boxer needs to be�.

I went to New Zealand. I went to this place that had a bit of smoke. It started to irritate my eye. My eye was in pain so I tried to move (the lens) around. Then the contact must have got out of place. This girl helped me - she’d worn contacts for years � she said the way to clean the lens is not under water, but with saliva. So being in the pain I was, I did that. I went back to the hotel, took it back out and put in a new, sterile lens.

It was too late then.

The next day I started to see a big ring form around my eye. It didn�t look right. I went to hospital on the Sunday night and was there ever since.

In the really dark moments, did you think you would have to give boxing away?

Boxing wasn�t even in my head. My life was in my head. My future, my kids. I was thinking about having one eye, and dealing with that.

(pause)

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

The interview: Mark Ricciuto

The interview: Tadhg Kennelly

The interview: Craig Bellamy