Sir Kevin Sinfield has revealed the heartbreaking final moments he shared with his best friend Rob Burrow.

The former Leeds Rhinos captain, 46, rushed back from an England rugby camp after being told Burrow was close to death and travelled north to see his stricken friend.

Burrow, who had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2019, was lying in a private room with breathing apparatus on when Sinfield arrived the day before his death in June 2024.

Yet despite being in the final stages of the devastating disease, Burrow greeted his lifelong friend with the same smile he had given him throughout their years together.

Sinfield said the moment was 'sad but beautiful' as the pair communicated without words, before he kissed Burrow on the forehead and told him he loved him.

He said: 'The last day I saw him was the day before he passed and it was tough. I was in an England rugby camp and got the message. I knew all week he'd been poorly and got the message he was close.

'So I got back up north and went to see him. And as I looked through the little window to his private room he was fast asleep with breathing apparatus on.'

Sinfield continued: 'Anyway I crept in and saw him mum and his sister and I sat with him and he woke up.

'So I did what I normally did and tried to make him laugh and told him what I was up to.

'It was really sad. Sad but beautiful. We both knew it was the last time. I knew, I was pretty sure and I'm pretty sure he did too.'

The extraordinary friendship between the two men became one of the most powerful stories in British sport after Burrow was diagnosed with MND.

Their bond was captured in one of the most iconic images of their journey together when Sinfield carried his former team-mate over the finish line of the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon in May 2023.

After pushing Burrow around the entire 26.2-mile course in a specially adapted wheelchair, Sinfield stopped just short of the line, lifted his friend into his arms and carried him across as the crowd erupted in applause.

But behind the public displays of friendship was a private battle against a disease which gradually robbed Burrow of his ability to move and speak.

Sinfield has now opened up about how the pair found new ways to communicate as Burrow's condition deteriorated – revealing how facial expressions, smiles and eye contact became their way of having conversations.

He also described how Burrow's personality remained intact despite the devastating effects of MND.

He explained that Burrow was nicknamed 'Stevie Wonder' because he would keep his sunglasses on and even fall asleep while Sinfield was talking to him.

He told the High Performance podcast: 'You've got to bank your voice. You've got to do that now because you don't know when your voice is going to go and it could be too late.

'For Rob, when his speech was going, he was fortunate in some ways because there had been so many rugby interviews that used his voice that they were able to take snippets of it and piece it together so he could bank his voice.

'Our last conversation was going back a number of years because he lost his voice pretty quickly.

'He used his machine but Rob was stubborn and didn't like using it.

'So he'd be sat there with his sunglasses on - we used to call him Stevie Wonder at times - but he'd be sat there with his sunglasses on and not a care in the world.

'You'd just be chatting to him and he'd be fast asleep. We worked out a way of communicating without speaking.

'I'd be speaking but he had a way through facial expressions, smiles, eye contact. When I think back to that, I think how wonderful it is to be able to develop and have great conversations without him able to speak.'