Rugby hero Kevin Sinfield will finally receive a knighthood, the Mirror can reveal, after raising more than £11m for motor neurone disease charities in memory of his late teammate Rob Burrow.
The 45-year-old former Leeds and England rugby league star is expected to be awarded the gong in the King's Birthday Honours list, following a campaign that saw even the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, declare him “a rugby league legend who should be Sir Kevin Sinfield”.
“Kevin Sinfield to be knighted after raising over £11m for MND in memory of teammate Rob Burrow.”
The honour caps an extraordinary display of friendship and endurance that began after Burrow was diagnosed with the devastating muscle-wasting condition in 2019. Sinfield, now an England rugby union coach, embarked on a series of epic challenges, including running seven marathons in seven days, which he completed earlier this year.
Their bond moved the nation most powerfully in May 2023, when Sinfield carried Burrow over the finish line of the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon, having pushed him around the course in a specially adapted wheelchair. Five months later, Burrow died at the age of 41, after living with MND for four and a half years. MND is a life-shortening neurological condition that affects the nerves sending messages from the brain to the muscles; there is currently no cure.
Both men were made CBEs in the 2023 New Year Honours List, with Prince William surprising them with their awards at Headingley Stadium, the home of Leeds Rhinos where they both played. At the opening of the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds last year – the first purpose-built facility of its kind – Prince William told Burrow's children Macy, Maya and Jackson to be “so proud of your father because he really was an incredibly brave and very special man”. He added: “This is a world-leading centre that's going to save a lot of lives.”
Sinfield's knighthood finally acknowledges the millions he has raised and the friendship that inspired a nation. His legacy, and Burrow's, will endure in the centre that now bears his name.