Former Geelong champion Joel Selwood has opened up on the battles he faced on and off the footy field.
The four-time premiership winner has revealed the heartbreak he and his wife Brit faced in trying to conceive, as well as the unique burdens an AFL star carries.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Footy legend Joel Selwood opens up about his challenges on and off the pitch.
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Selwood has penned a memoir called All In, detailing some of his biggest life events, including the couple recently welcoming a ‘miracle baby’ after years of struggling to conceive.
Speaking to Sunrise on Wednesday, Selwood also said he wasn’t taking one second of his newfound fatherhood for granted.
“We are very fortunate, Joey came into the world in late February, and we’ve loved every moment of it,” Selwood smiled.
“He has been a good little boy and we’ve had a great time with him.
“He has just travelled over to Europe and had a European summer, so life has been pretty good for him.”
The 35-year-old said he decided to share the struggle he and Brit had with IVF because it had become such a big part of their story, and one which may have been overshadowed by his recent success on the field.
“Obviously, the last few years of football (at) Geelong … and playing not only in the grand final but the prelim the year before,” he said.
“We just thought that it may be able to help others in a similar situation as well, and if I was going to tell the whole story, the heading is ‘All In,’ so it was more about letting everyone know that the journey wasn’t as smooth as what it always looked, but in between, there were more important things.”
Captaining Geelong’s most recent premiership last year before retiring with 355 games and 175 goals under his belt, Selwood agrees that from the outside, people may have perceived his life to be perfect.
“I had a strong woman in my life, so that definitely helped, my wife was amazing through the journey that we had to go through,” he said.
“We didn’t have many ups — there were three losses over the journey that we had to go through, and then from there it was just seeing the things that she had to go through, through IVF.
“We were well-supported with the team that we had … in making sure that we got there in the end.
“Brit and I kept the journey of IVF pretty quiet because we used our workplaces as a little bit of recovery time more than anything else.
“It was a place where we could go and forget about the ‘IVF clock’, as we called it.”
Having played his entire career with the Cats, Selwood admits that writing the memoir offered a sense of closure after hanging up the boots last September.
“Writing the book was a little bit easier to have a little bit of closure on it, but I am (the Cats’) biggest supporter still,” he said.
“I ride every bump with them and it’s been a bit of a tough season for them, injuries at the wrong time, a little bit of form slump every now and again, but I’ve got faith that they will be there come September.”