Bulldogs star Toby Sexton opens up on nearly losing his dad in horrific accident

NRL News 2023: Canterbury Bulldogs halfback Toby Sexton on dad's health scare

Canterbury Bulldogs halfback Toby Sexton says his dad Tony is his hero.

He doesn’t miss any of Sexton’s games and is the first to hug his son, win, loss or draw.

But earlier this year, Sexton feared he would lose his father forever.

Tony lost two and a half litres of blood in a workplace incident on the Gold Coast, almost losing an arm to a chainsaw.

“He got three-quarters the way through a hedge and he kind of slipped on his platform … with a hedger and cut through his arm, cut through a vein and cut through an artery,” Sexton told 9News.

It was a life-and-death situation, with Sexton’s younger brother Matt, who is studying to be a paramedic, luckily working with their father at the time of the incident.

“There were multiple times my little brother was saying he thought dad was going, which is something I can’t get my head around to this day, what my little brother must’ve been going through,” Sexton said.

Meantime, Sexton was a plane ride away after his recent move from the Gold Coast Titans to the Bulldogs, meaning a phone call from his mother left him feeling helpless.

“Mum called me at the time and said ‘don’t stress but I’m not sure whether or not dad’s going to make it’.

“I booked the first flight I could to the Gold Coast, I was losing it, honestly, there’s no other way to say it.

“I was in tears, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do, whether he was going to make it.”

The plane journey itself was horrific.

“It was shocking. Normally I watch a movie on the plane ride, but I just sat there the whole time looking at photos of dad and thinking ‘this can’t be the last moment’,” he said.

Tony has made a near full recovery, months on from the incident that almost cost him his life.

“For it to work out the way it did and dad now only being in a brace a couple month on, to be back to working full time again, it’s honestly remarkable,” Sexton said.

“It’s definitely made me have a whole new perspective on life and just appreciate everything so much more.

“He’s my hero. Everything I do is for him.”