Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

‘Realistic’:Michael Hooper says he is taking his return day by day.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone

Hooper’s sudden withdrawal shocked fans and the Wallabies,from his teammates to the coaches,none of whom saw the crisis coming. The four-time John Eales Medal winner has put in an uninterrupted 10-year stint in the gold jersey marked by consistently excellent performances. He spoke plainly about how difficult it was to approach Rennie when he knew he wasn’t right.

“I’ve got high expectations of myself. Pulling out of a game is certainly right up there with something I couldn’t have seen myself doing. Of course it was hard,” he said.

“I’d been playing the game for a long time,had some great changes in my life happen this year and I think there were a lot of things running through my head that showed up in Argentina. Argentina wasn’t the place where I could sort those things out. I wanted to be around family,I wanted to be in a place that I could put the time in that I wanted to put in,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean now that I’m sitting here completely cured,it’s not like that at all. But at that point in time I needed to be somewhere else and that wasn’t Argentina. I know that’s quite vague but I’m still getting my head around it. It’s not that long ago. But I’m feeling in a place now where I’m keen to be here.”

Michael Hooper says he missed competing during his two-month break.Credit:Getty

Hooper admitted he had sought “all types” of help to navigate an unprecedented period of uncertainty in his long and decorated career,including therapy,self-help books and the “amazing” support of his wife,Kate.

“As a younger man I viewed asking for help as a bit of a weakness. That’s the way I viewed it. You want to feel like you have it all worked out. I certainly didn’t,” he said,suggesting he rarely took the time to check in with his mental health. “The beautiful thing about rugby and the hard thing about sport is there’s always the next goal,so you can move on and you can move on quick.”

This year Hooper has often referenced retirement positively,leading to speculation he will retire from Test rugby after the World Cup and potentially take a deal in Japan. The 30-year-old said that transition,whenever it comes,played on his mind in the lead up to Argentina.

“It came around suddenly,” he said. “It was probably exacerbated being overseas but certainly,where I’m at in my career and things like that,you start to look at post rugby (life),I’ve got a family now. There’s a lot more elements than being a 22-year-old pretty much concerned about yourself. That played into it. I think it’s only natural that as an athlete there’s going to be a transition point in my career,and that was a factor.”

Watch all the action from the Wallabies’ Spring Tour with every match streaming ad-free,live and on demand on Stan Sport. Kicks off this Sunday withScotland v Wallabies from 3:10am AEDT.

License this article