{"id":525909,"date":"2026-01-18T20:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T20:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/525909\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T20:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T20:35:11","slug":"sudden-brain-aneurysm-confirmed-as-phoenix-spicers-cause-of-death-in-facebook-post-by-partner-ky-ya-nicholson-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/525909\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudden brain aneurysm confirmed as Phoenix Spicer\u2019s cause of death in Facebook post by partner Ky-ya Nicholson Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains an image of a deceased person.<\/p>\n

Ky-ya Nicholson Ward \u2014 the partner of the late Phoenix Spicer \u2014 has urged the community to \u201cget checked and listen to your body\u201d after confirming the cause of the former AFL footballer\u2019s shock death earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Spicer, who spent three seasons with North Melbourne earlier this decade, died in early January aged 23<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In a Facebook post, Nicholson Ward said her \u201cheart is broken\u201d as she announced Spicer had passed away due to a \u201csudden brain aneurysm\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve decided to share what happened to my darling Phoenix, not because I have to, but because I want to raise awareness,\u201d Nicholson Ward wrote on Facebook on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhoenix took his last breath on Friday the 2nd of January but he DID NOT take his own life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found him\u2026 we tried with everything we could to save him but we didn\u2019t know he was already gone. It was the most traumatic experience of my life.<\/p>\n

Phoenix Spicer spent three seasons at North Melbourne. Picture: Mark StewartSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n

\u201cDays later we found out that Phoenix passed into the Dreaming from a sudden brain aneurysm. He never complained of headaches or showed any signs that something was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, if you can, get checked and listen to your body. This can happen to anyone, at any time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two private memorials for family and friends to honour Spicer\u2019s life will be held in Melbourne and Adelaide this week.<\/p>\n

Spicer played 12 games for the Kangaroos after being drafted with Pick 42 in the 2020 national draft. He was delisted at the end of 2023, before playing 18 games across two seasons for the Footscray Bulldogs in the VFL.<\/p>\n

The South Adelaide product had signed with Hoppers Crossing in the Western Region Football League ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains an image of a deceased person.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":525910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,4740,33383,1587,1066,59,11649,18929,587,33386,33378,233569,1589,221572,233567,233571,29833,233572,233570,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,8515,233568],"class_list":{"0":"post-525909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-az","13":"tag-facebook","14":"tag-inc","15":"tag-mark","16":"tag-melbourne","17":"tag-north-america","18":"tag-northern-america","19":"tag-oceania","20":"tag-passes-awayafl","21":"tag-phoenix","22":"tag-phoenix-spicer","23":"tag-roo-phoenix","24":"tag-shock-death","25":"tag-stewart","26":"tag-sudden-brain-aneurysm","27":"tag-traumatic-experience","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-united-states-of-america","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-usa","34":"tag-victoria","35":"tag-western-region-football-league"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}