Scary reason Fatty wasn't on Game One Origin coverage

Queensland legend and Nine NRL commentator Paul Vautin has revealed the scary reason he was not featured in the broadcast of Game One in this year's State of Origin series.

Vautin was a notable absentee in the broadcast team for Nine for the series opener in Brisbane, where the Maroons pulled off an upset over the NSW Blues.

The man affectionately known as 'Fatty' had a shock diagnosis of "developing skin cancer" which he though was just a dry rash on his face.

"I had a patch of what I thought was dry skin on my face, but I went to the doctor to get it looked at … the next thing I knew I was being told that I was on the way to developing skin cancer," Vautin told Danny Weidler in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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"With Origin coming up, I spoke to the doctor and said what would happen if I put it off for a few weeks, even three weeks. I said to him, 'Believe it or not, I work in television and my face is on TV'.

"He didn't give a rats and told me I had to act straight away. I was told not to muck around. They gave me a treatment called Efudix. It's a cream that they explained to me is like chemo in a tube. I was told to put it on twice a day for 21 days, but after 13 days, I just couldn't get any more on, it was too painful. At times it hurt so much that I couldn't talk.

''Now I know that there are plenty of people going through more than me, but this is just what I had to deal with. The doctor told me that I could back off it because it was clearly working. That was a huge relief to me."

Vautin said he was hopeful of being able to return to Nine's State of Origin coverage for Game Two if he could, and said his experience should be a warning to other Australians about skin cancer.

"Given I'm a ranga, I've always looked after my skin," he said.

"I am outside a lot, but I am aware the dangers with being a redhead and the sun.

"It just shows you can't be too careful. Go and get your skin checked, even if you think it couldn't be a cancer and even if you are being careful."

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