Former AFL coach diagnosed with rare brain tumour

Former AFL premiership player and coach Danielle Laidley has been diagnosed with a rare brain tumour on her spinal cord.

Speaking on ‘The Imperfects’ podcast, the 58-year-old confirmed the growth was discovered after her long-term struggles with headaches and is non-fatal.

“I can sit here today today and use a quote from my surgeon, it’s not going to kill me, but being on my spinal cord it has to come out,” Laidley told ‘The Imperfects'.

“It’s sort of like walking around with a stone in your shoe. Some days it really hurts and other days it’s OK.

“It was as blunt as ‘you have a brain tumour, here’s a referral, off you go’. Donna and I went really quiet.

“For Donna to be quiet, you’ve got to understand, something’s not normal. We drove back in the car, and we didn’t speak for quite a while.

“At that point in time we didn’t know what sort of brain tumour. When you say brain tumour it’s like getting hit over the head with a sledgehammer."

The tumour, a subependymoma, is non-cancerous.

Laidley continues to work as a football analyst for The Western Australian.