SOMEWHERE between the dizziness and dry retching, Shaun Valentine will try to get himself ready for work.
Not the landscaping business he runs now. Nor those long winters spent bashing heads in the North Queensland pack.
No, instead this Townsville tradie stands hunched over his bathroom sink; dizzy, confused, trying to control the vomit ... telling himself to get out that door for a job he hasn't held since high school.
"Whenever the dizzy spells come on, it's like I go back in time," Valentine reveals.
"I get really groggy, confused. Think I'm still working at one of the jobs I had after leaving school.
"Eventually I do snap out if it and get my bearings. Yeah ... eventually."
If you cannot remember the four years, 36 games and seven major concussions that made Valentine's NRL career, don't feel bad - neither does he.
Call it life for this retired leaguie, still only 35, who starts every day looking for the car keys he "religiously" places on the loungeroom bar every night before.
It's been this way for a while now, Valentine admits. Misplacing items, forgetting messages. The gifted athlete who once counted memory among his greatest assets now recalling games only via DVD.
Which isn't to say he wants to make a big deal of his condition. Exactly the opposite. Starting almost every answer this particular day with Mate, it's nothing too bad ...
