Rhali Dobson: Melbourne City Football Star Retires to Care for Ailing Fiancé
- In her final game on Thursday, 25 March, Melbourne City football star Rhali Dobson scored in the 63rd minute to lead her team to a 2-1 victory over Perth Glory
- The most beautiful moment of her last game was her man Matt going down on his knee to propose as she celebrated the goal, as he has brain cancer
- With increased hospital visits and Matt requiring constant care, it made sense for her to put an end to her sporting career and support him
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Melbourne City star Rhali Dobson has hung her football boots early to care for her fiancé Matt Stonham, who was diagnosed with brain cancer.
In her final game on Thursday 25, Dobson scored in the 63rd minute to lead her team to a 2-1 victory over Perth Glory.
The most beautiful moment of her last game was Matt going down on his knee to propose as she celebrated the goal.
Source: UGC
On his head, the conspicuous scar from his last surgery to remove a brain tumour was visible. Dobson was so engulfed by emotions that she broke down in tears as her teammates surrounded the couple to join in the moment of glory.
The striker was, for the last ever time, substituted from the Women's League game in the 74th minute.
The newly-engaged star revealed that she kept news of her retirement from her team until the even of the last game because she figured it would have affected the rest psychologically.
"I'd kept things pretty quiet because I wanted them to stay focused on making sure we had a strong finish to the end of the season. As we know, it's been very up and down," she said in an interview.
Six years ago, Matt, who was also a footballer, suffered a seizure while on the pitch, after which a diagnosis showed that he had brain cancer. He underwent surgery recently and is set to go through intensive radiotherapy followed by a year of chemotherapy.
Dobson added that Matt had prevailed upon her to get herself together and show up because the team needed her services to finish the season. The bad news was that when the couple got to Melbourne, they learnt that the part the surgery had taken out had turned into a grade three brain tumour.
With the many hospital visits and Matt requiring constant care, it made sense for her to put an end to her sporting career and support the man she loves.
"This is bigger than the sport. He is my absolute world," she said.
Now that is some next-level love and commitment.
In other news, Briefly.co.za reported that ITV presenter Kate Garraway has expressed fears that she may be forced to leave her Good Morning Britain (GMB) show to care for her ailing husband Derek Draper.
Draper has been in hospital since March 2020 where he is bedridden after testing positive for Covid-19.
According to doctors, who put him in a medically-induced coma, Draper is the most critical patient they have encountered who remained alive for the period he has, with the good news being that he is slowly improving.
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Source: Briefly News
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
Mxolisi Mngadi (Editor) Mxolisi Mngadi is an entertainment reporter. He graduated in 2002 from Damelin with a Diploma in Journalism, majoring in African and International Studies, Journalism and Electronic Media. He then started his journalism career at the Daily Sun newspaper, went on to The Citizen, and worked as a senior reporter at News24. He has been a writer for more than 15 years.
