Rob Burrow: Leeds Rhinos legend dies aged 41

Leeds Rhinos legend Rob Burrow has died aged 41, the Super League club have announced.

Burrow represented them throughout his 16-year playing career but was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in December 2019, two years after he retired.

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Burrow’s life was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with MNDCredit: Getty

He worked tirelessly in raising awareness and money for the fight against the disease, raising millions alongside former teammate Kevin Sinfield to build a new care centre for MND patients until his passing on Sunday.

Burrow was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List for his services to MND.

Leeds’ statement released on Sunday evening read: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our beloved son, husband, father, brother and friend.

“Rob has always been a true inspiration throughout his life whether that was on the rugby league field or during his battle with MND (motor neurone disease).

“He never allowed others to define what he could achieve and believed in his own ability to do more.

“The outpouring of love and support that Rob and the whole Burrow family have received over the last four and a half years meant so much to Rob.

“In particular, the rugby league family and MND community have rallied around Rob to inspire him, thank you for your support.

“For those who knew Rob throughout his life, his determination and spirit in the face of MND over the last four and a half years came as no surprise.

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Burrow enjoyed a stellar playing career, which spanned from 2001-2017Credit: Getty

“In particular, the rugby league family and MND community have rallied around Rob to inspire him, thank you for your support.

“For those who knew Rob throughout his life, his determination and spirit in the face of MND over the last four and a half years came as no surprise.

“Rob never accepted that he couldn’t do something. He just found his way of doing it better than anyone else.

“He will continue to inspire us all every day. In a world full of adversity. We must dare to dream.”

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Sinfield joined forces with Burrow to help raise money and awareness, the two doing the Leeds marathon together last year

Burrow’s amazing trophy haul also includes no fewer than eight Grand Final triumphs, while the one-club man twice won the Challenge Cup and could boast three World Club Challenges with his beloved Rhinos.

He is fifth on Leeds’ all-time list of appearance-makers, having contributed 1,103 points from 492 matches from 2001 up to his retirement in 2017, and won 15 England caps as well as making five appearances for Great Britain.

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Of his 196 tries, the one he will be most remembered for was his scampering, long-range effort against St Helens in 2011, in which he ducked under the challenge of Tony Puleta, evaded the tackle of James Roby and accelerated away from the grasp of Paul Wellens.

That devastating combination of strength, elusiveness and pace perfectly summed up the career of one of rugby league’s all-time greats.

But it’s perhaps his incredible work in raising money and awareness for MND that will make him an icon of sport.

Rob Burrow was a total inspiration

So are all his family and friends, including great pal Kevin Sinfield

For them, love conquered all ❤️ pic.twitter.com/zCj8fKLB9S

— Francis Keogh (@HonestFrank) June 2, 2024

It was with such stoicism that Burrow threw himself into his next challenge, staving off the advancement of a disease which attacks the nerves controlling movement, rendering muscles increasingly useless.

Burrow was just 37 and had three children (Maya, Macy and Jackson) under the age of eight with wife Lindsey when he made the announcement on December 19, 2019 that he had MND.

Sports fans, and those in rugby league especially, responded by raising over £160,000 for Burrow’s battle in the space of four days.

In mid-January a sell-out crowd of almost 20,000 turned up at Headingley for a joint benefit match with former teammate Jamie Jones-Buchanan and there was hardly a dry eye in the ground when Burrow went on to play the final five minutes.

The overwhelming sense of pity the fans may have felt, though, was the last thing Burrow wanted as he bravely faced the media within hours of breaking the awful news.

“The worst thing for me is people pitying me,” he said. “I know it’s going to come, but I want to be as normal as ever.

“While I am able-bodied and feel fit and strong and healthy, I want to do normal things and not be treated any differently.”

Burrow’s first task was to travel to Scotland to meet Doddie Weir, another larger-than-life rugby character who had been diagnosed with MND two-and-a-half years earlier and had set the bar high in his efforts to raise awareness of the crippling condition.

Burrow, who brushed aside suggestions that his MND was a direct result of the proliferation of head knocks, displayed his trademark courtesy and courage as he put himself through a gruelling round of interviews, even apologising for the state of his voice which was already showing the effects of the disease.

Barrie McDermott, a former teammate, said at the time: “The thing with Rob is that the stature he had as a player is certainly not the same as his stature as a person.

“He’s fought adversity all his career with his size and came out of the other side with so many trophies.”

By the summer of 2020, Burrow had lost his voice and began to type answers to questions with his eye-gaze machine, which used his voice from old rugby interviews.

By January 2021, he had lost the use of his hands and arms and began using a wheelchair after his legs became very weak, but his resolve to never give in grew ever stronger.

An emotional BBC documentary, ‘Rob Burrow – My Year with MND’, helped achieve his aim of raising awareness of the disease, as did his old captain Sinfield’s remarkable feat of running seven marathons in seven days, which also raised £2.7million.

Sinfield raised a further sum in excess of £1m in November 2021 with from a 101-mile run inside 24 hours from his new club Leicester Tigers to Headingley, while his Ultra 7 in 7 Challenge the following November, seven back-to-back ultra-marathons, generated more than £1.4m.

In May 2023, Sinfield carried Burrow over the finish line at the inaugural Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon after pushing his great friend for the 26.2 miles, while in December he continued his remarkable fund-raising efforts by running seven ultra-marathons in seven different cities in as many days.

Leeds plan to recognise the achievements of both Burrow and Sinfield with a statue to be erected at Headingley.

Burrow’s strength in adversity was documented in his autobiography ‘Too Many Reasons To Live’, which won second prize in the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, and he was awarded an MBE in the 2021 New Year Honours, just days after being inducted into the Leeds Hall of Fame. He was made a CBE, along with Sinfield, for services to MND awareness in the 2024 New Year Honours.

Burrow received the Helen Rollason Award at the 2022 BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony, where he paid tribute to his “MND hero” Weir, who had died the previous month.

He was chief guest at the 2020 Challenge Cup final at Wembley in which Leeds beat Salford, which he was unable to attend due to the pandemic, but he was at Old Trafford in October 2021 to present the Harry Sunderland Trophy to the Grand Final man of the match, an award he had himself won on two occasions.

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