Footy star reveals shocking health battle behind his support for AFL’s controversial ban on tests that ‘shame’ players

Essendon star Eloise Gardner has lifted the lid on her health issues by hitting back at football legend Matthew Lloyd for criticizing the league’s recent decision to ban skinfold testing.

Gardner took to social media after Lloyd and fellow commentator Kane Cornes both condemned the AFL’s decision.

‘Good riddance! The outrage over this is atrocious. she tweeted.

“Between my first and second VFLW season, I lost 10kg, became obsessed with tracking my weight and food to the point of bordering on an eating disorder and was too much exercise.

“The pressures placed on young athletes are already enough.

Champion Essendon Bombers Lloyd (pictured with wife Lisa) says “the world has gone crazy” after skin testing was officially banned by the AFL.

“I remember being celebrated for my hard work during the offseason and the praise I received.

“It very quickly became part of the belief that my weight determined my self-worth.

“I have no doubt that my obsession with pushing my body to its limits, while not nourishing my body appropriately and neglecting other aspects of my mental and emotional well-being, has been a key factor in my current chronic illness.”

Gardner suffered so much from chronic fatigue syndrome that she was bedridden for more than a month.

“This illness is tricky enough, add asthma and ADHD which, apart from medication, are both largely managed by exercise which I can no longer do… this adds an extra complication” , she wrote on her blog. .

Gardner added that she “wore her weight loss ‘like a fucking gold medal’ at the time — and couldn’t see that she was actually unhealthy.

His lengthy tweet was in response to Bombers champion Lloyd stating “the world has gone mad” after it was confirmed the AFL had banned skin testing.

“(In my career) I was above (skin fold) level for a while,” Lloyd told Channel Nine. Footy classified.

“That was a huge wake-up call…and then I was in training the next six Sundays until I recovered.”

Cornes questioned whether banning skinfold testing for emerging players was the best way to prepare them for the rigors of professional sports.

“One has to ask whether this best prepares them for the challenges they will face once they enter the system,” he said.

Commentator Kane Cornes also disagreed with the AFL’s decision regarding skinfold testing.

The skinfold is one of the oldest tests used in sports to determine body fat and muscle composition.

The AFL’s decision is primarily aimed at protecting the mental health of young players and limiting the stigma surrounding weight and body fat, as well as the notion that all athletes must report to training at a certain fitness level physical.

According to veteran journalist Caroline Wilson, no AFL club was consulted on the decision, which was revealed in a memo.

Essendon boss Xavier Campbell also found the AFL’s decision baffling.

“I could kind of understand it on a local level, I think there’s some merit there, but we’re a performance-based industry,” he told SEN.

“I’m not sure we have skinfold measurements included in contracts these days, but it still makes up a lot of the testing that high performance does on players.

“There’s different ways of doing it, body mass index and everything else… but I would say there always has to be some sort of assessment that has to be included in that part of the game.” ‘