Andrew Johns reveals epilepsy diagnosis

Nine NRL commentator Andrew Johns has spoken about his health condition in an interview on FOX League.

Speaking to his brother on Sunday Night with Matty Johns, he admitted he’s been diagnosed with frontal lobe epilepsy.

He said the condition can be managed with medication.

“I’ve been on medication for it for three years now, but they’ve upped it right up,” Johns said.

“The last three months, since the last seizure, I have felt really clear.

“They can’t be sure what causes it, it may be something that’s cropped up later in life, but they think a contributing factor may be some of the concussions I’ve had and some of the continual head knocks.”

Johns also opened up on his first seizure.

“I was calling a final between Canberra and Penrith down in Canberra in 2016. I was up there commentating and all of a sudden something came on in my body,” he said.

“I went into this trance, this state, and I went into this dream. It’s hard to describe, you go into this deja vu kind of scene and everything goes quiet.

“It hit me, and I came out of it and was just sitting in the comm box and obviously I didn’t say anything for a while. The producer came up and said ‘mate are you all right?’.

“Later that night I went home to the hotel and went straight to bed, which is pretty much a first … I woke up in the morning and had two big puncture marks in my tongue and it had swelled right up.”

Over the last three years he has endured seizures every two months.

“But the last two have been really severe,” Johns said.

“I had one up in Yamba over Christmas where I actually fell over in a cafe and smashed my head.

“The last one I had in New Zealand I was over there surfing with my family and my young bloke, we were out in the water for six or seven hours a day.

“I think about it now because the specialist said I can’t surf on my own. I make sure I don’t go out.”