The Prince of Wales said awarding a knighthood to rugby league great Kevin Sinfield "was probably the easiest decision anyone's ever had to make," speaking to BBC Breakfast about the honor he personally conferred at Windsor Castle this month.
"I think frankly he should have been Sir Kevin years ago," Prince William said. "What Kevin does, is he can bind and glue communities together by being that leader. The more Kevs we have in this country the better." Sinfield, 45, was made a knight bachelor for his rugby career and his fundraising for motor neurone disease (MND) charities — work that began after the diagnosis of his friend and former Leeds Rhinos teammate Rob Burrow, who died of the disease in 2024.
Seven marathons in seven days
Sinfield's latest fundraising feat, completed earlier this month, saw him run seven ultramarathons in seven days. William and Catherine, the Prince and Princess of Wales, surprised him in Wakefield as he completed the third leg. "I don't know how he keeps going, I'm worried about his knees, I'm worried about his hips," William said. "The guy is just a machine."
A friendship that became a public mission
Burrow's MND diagnosis transformed a friendship between teammates into a nationwide awareness campaign, with Sinfield becoming one of the disease's most visible fundraisers in Britain. William also described writing to Burrow's widow, Lindsey, and their children after his death, saying he was in awe of how she had coped "with such quiet dignity." A new Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease, which the prince opened last November at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds, now provides patient care and research into the condition. "He's a very kind, caring, human being but he's still a lunatic," William said of Sinfield. "He's gold dust, he really is … if you could bottle it up and sell it, it would be priceless."