Manu Vatuvei diagnosed with brain cyst which could end rugby league career

Manu Vatuvei is unsure whether he will be able to play rugby league again after he was diagnosed with a brain cyst.

The 33-year-old, who scored a record 152 tries for the New Zealand Warriors, has not played since leaving Salford Red Devils in 2017 after suffering a ruptured Achilles.

Last year Vatuvei took up boxing and claimed a knockout win in his first bout, but was then told he could not fight again.

"I've got a cyst in my brain, so that's been tough," Vatuvei told NRL.com.

"[There were] no symptoms, no nothing. Everyone had to do a [brain] scan before the fight and they found it then and tried to rule me out of the fight, but I went on with it and came out good.

"I had some fights lined up which were cancelled because of that."

Vatuvei is refusing to announce his retirement from rugby league "because I'm still in denial that I can still play", and retains hope he will cleared to resume his rugby career.

"There's always a goal that I want to come back to the game," he said. "It all depends, I've still got some medical things that I've got to look at.

"Right now my mind and my heart is telling me I can still play but my body is saying no, so it's a constant battle at the moment.

"Right now I can't do any boxing but with footy, they said because I must have had it a long time ago, I must have been all good playing [with it].

"So I'm still deciding from there. Hopefully, I hear back from that soon and decide what my future holds."