Court hears of footballer Shane Tuck’s ‘unrelenting’ distress in years prior to his death

Shane Tuck in 2006 playing for Richmond. Donating Shane’s brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank and learning of their findings had helped the family rebuild their lives after his death, his sister Renee Tuck told the coroner’s court. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

The late Richmond player Shane Tuck endured “a war zone inside his head” during his last days, fighting a battle he had “no chance of winning” against neurodegenerative disease, an inquest has heard.

In harrowing testimony on Friday, Tuck’s sister Renee told the Victorian coroner’s court of her brother’s rapidly deteriorating mental health over the last year of his life, as his disease progressed.