PRIDE OF THE NATION LIFE AFTER RUGBY
BY RYAN JONES
‘I miss the emotion of winning and losing. You feel alive. And then, bang, it’s all gone’
Ex-Wales captain’s revealing take on why so many sports stars struggle after the final whistle – See pages 4&5
FORMER Wales rugby captain Ryan Jones has spoken about the mental difficulties elite sportsmen and women face when their careers come to an end.
Ex-Australia lock Dan Vickerman, who played against Jones, was recently found dead at his family home in Sydney aged 37, with New South Wales Police saying there were not any suspicious circumstances.
Football great George Best lost his life to alcoholism, while Paul Gascoigne is another to have battled against major drink problems.
Jones’ former Wales team-mate Andy Powell and ex-Scotland star Rory Lamont are among rugby players who have suffered from depression.
Lamont said: “Coming out of rugby, my world pretty much collapsed. You’re thinking: ‘I don’t want to live like this. I’d rather die.’”
Former Lions star Jones, who retired from playing in August 2015, is now the Welsh Rugby Union’s head of rugby participation.
But the 35-year-old admitted the transition to a “normal” life with his young family has been a challenge, saying: “We all cope in different ways and it hasn’t been easy for me.
“Perception sometimes masks reality. One thing I would say is the cruellest thing about sport is that it introduced me to a world I would have never known existed coming from where I’m from.
“I’ve been very fortunate through sport to travel the world and when you step away all the struggles of modern life away from the game step in.
“To a large extent you’re not prepared for it. You get a loss of identity and then there’s the practical stuff, like filling in forms, doing your paperwork and integrating back into normal life.
“One thing I found difficult was that when I was playing I was away from home for five months of the year. Now all of a sudden ‘I’m back under ‘mum’s’ [his wife’s] toes’.
“Essentially you’re institutionalised and then bang, it’s all gone and it’s taken away. I know it sounds daft, but it’s things like having to look after your own medical care.
“I don’t miss the physical nature of the game, but I miss the emotion of winning and losing. You feel alive.
“I miss the emotion, the circus of it all, the excitement.
“A lot of people in life are driven by a fear of failure. Sportsmen and women aren’t like that because they’re not afraid to try things.”
Jones believes the advent of social media, with sportsmen and women being abused on it, hasn’t helped the mental well-being of some individu- als. “There’s a process to go through and one thing we have now is social media. That doesn’t help. Some of the things I see and read are disgusting. It’s sad and sickening,” he said.
“At the end of the day it’s sport and that’s all it is. When I played you could not buy the paper on a Sunday and not answer the front door and there was an element of escapism.
“Nowadays social media brings it all into your front room. It’s different times but people have to learn to cope in a different way.”
And he was adamant “there is a duty of care for everyone involved in sport to look after their own”.
Jones believes the subject of what happens to sporting stars after the finish of their careers having entered the public domain is a step forward.
“I think it’s great all the exposure these issues have got. Sadly they’ve come in tragic circumstances, but bringing it to the forefront of people’s minds is massive,” he said.