Sean Fitzpatrick: Former All Blacks Captain on the passing of former team doctor John 'Doc' Mayhew

Rugby is mourning the passing of former All Blacks doctor John Mayhew. 

Mayhew has passed away after heart complications, at the age of 70. 

He served as the All Blacks doctor between 1988 and 2004 before moving to the Warriors for 15 years. 

Former All Black Captain Sean Fitzpatrick told Mike Hosking Mayhew was very much part of the team, both on and off the field.  

He says he was a lovely man, a confidant, very calm, and managed to bring humour to very tense situations. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We lost John Mayhew yesterday. Sadly, Doc was a familiar voice,
of course on this station. He was a long serving
All Blacks doctor, spent time with North Harbor, the Blues
and the Warriors. The All Black stint was between eighty
eight and two thousand and four, which encompassed most of
Sean Fitzpatrick's career. He was there for one hundred and
thirty one test, more than two hundred matches and Shawn's
with us morning mate Morning Mike sixty nine to seventy.

(00:20):
It's not right, is it.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, it's a very very sad day. I wor up
this morning and had a number of messages on my
phone about per ol John, And to be honest, it
sort of brought a smile to my face because he
has such a such a big presence in my life.
He was my doctor for almost over forty years. I
was there for nearly all my All Black career. Just

(00:47):
a very very special in news oleander.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And a lovely I mean it's one thing to be
the all Blacks doctor, but a nice guy.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
With it, yeah, a lovely man, a confidante. Calm managed
to bring humor two very tense situations. But yes, other said,
just the most wonderful human being and sadly missed, just
far too young to go.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
What was his role on the field, because I assume
at that level he sprays on more than just water.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yes, well, he put a lot of stitches in my body,
that's for sure over the years. But yes, I said,
just that calming influence. Had had a real feel for
the game. And you think back to those early sort
of days in his career in the sort of mid
eighties tour to Australian eighty eight. You know, it was
him and him and Abbo with the two medical persons

(01:43):
and then we had a manager and that was it basically.
So he was very much part of part of the
team on and off the field.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
He was very open about the heart condition too, wasn't
I remember when he had had an attack, he sort
of went public with it and encourage people to get
checked and look after your health and all that sort
of stuff, which is invaluable.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, very much. So he was, you know, he was
a very very fit man and it was such surprise
when he when he had that heart attack a couple
of years ago. But you know, obviously our thoughts very
much for this family and with Sue and the kids,
and you know, as I said, it was just a
very sad time to wake up this morning, but you

(02:24):
know the underlying feeling of Dot May, who was the lovely,
lovely memories and such a such, such a confidante to
so many people.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Brew Well said, Sean loves to catch up. Appreciated brew
very much. Sean Fitzpatrick, who was I think he's with
us out of France this morning.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
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