Ospreys rugby player quits game at 24 to protect mental health

International player Dan Lydiate believes things have changed for the better since his debut for Wales in 2009.

‘’I think we’re talking about mental health more,” said the 36-year-old Grand Slam winner. “There’s more of an awareness of what’s going on in people’s lives which is a positive move.’’

After his father died two years ago, he said rugby was a lifeline.

‘’The only thing that was normal for me was to just get back into rugby and play the following week,” he added.

‘’I miss him now. Where I jump in the car, first thing I’d do, I’d pick up the phone and ring him on my way back.

‘’For all my career, until two years ago, that’s what we did every day.’’

He can understand why players struggle.

‘’In rugby, people see the highs but they don’t see the lows,’’ he said.

‘’They don’t see when you’re battered and bruised and laid up in a hospital bed and struggling to put a pair of pants on because you’ve broken bones and stuff like that.

‘’It’s not all smiles on faces. It is a tough career on the body and the mind.’’

Fellow Wales international and Dragons teammate Shane Lewis-Hughes, 27, believes conversations around mental health should be happening day-to-day.

‘’I think as a man, especially in a sporting environment, it’s almost like sometimes you bury your problems and you think they’re going to stay away but they don’t,” he said.