Just days after the Aussie cricket legend was hospitalised, Rod Marsh’s family have announced he is in “the fight of his life”.
Marsh is in critical condition after suffering a heart attack while on the way to a charity event in the Queensland city of Bundaberg on Thursday night.
His heart stopped beating for several minutes before he was revived by the doctors at Bundaberg Hospital.
Paul Marsh, one of Marsh’s sons, released an update on on behalf of the family.
“He (Rod) is currently in the fight of his life and remains in an induced coma in critical condition,” the statement reads.
“At the moment this is a waiting game and we are unlikely to have any certainty for some time.”
“We know there is a lot of interest in Dad’s condition and our family has been overwhelmed by the messages of love and support from all around the world. We have listened to and read every one of them and we are incredibly grateful to everyone.”
The family went on to thank Dave Hillier and John Glanville who were with Rod at the time of his heart attack for their “bravery and “quick thinking”, saying they were “eternally grateful”.
The statement concluded saying, “We will provide further updates once we have them and, in the meantime, we ask media to respect our family’s privacy as we focus on helping Dad fight this battle.”
Rod Marsh represented Australia in 96 Test matches and 92 ODIs between 1970 and 1984, and scored 3633 Test runs and claimed 343 catches during a stellar international career.
Following his retirement in 1984, Marsh continued contributing to the cricket community as a coach, commentator and national selector, before being inducted into the Cricket Australia Hall of Fame in 2005 and the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.
Image credits: Getty Images
This article first appeared on OverSixty.