sport news Footy star's wife opens up on the deadly disease that's left him unable to ... trends now

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The wife of former rugby league star John Bilbija has revealed how a diagnosis of early onset dementia has turned their life upside down and left him unable to fend for himself.

But despite the enormous obstacles they face as a family, Michelle Bilbija has no plans to sue the NRL as 'winning a court case won't bring him back to the guy he was'.

Bilbija, 65, represented the likes of Balmain, Parramatta, Western Suburbs and South Sydney in the 1980s - and the second-rower was left reeling after receiving the horrible news from a doctor just under a decade ago.

'Frankly, I'm surprised he is still with us today,' his wife of 43 years Michelle told Wide World of Sports.

'He is just a shell of the lovely man he was … It's got to the stage where he can't feed himself, can't talk, can't dress himself ... he needs full-time care.