Rugby player, 24, won't return over mental health

A former rugby player has said he will not return to the professional game to protect his mental health.

Harri Morgan, 24, who played for the Ospreys, announced he was taking a step back from the game in 2023 after trying to take his own life.

He lost both his grandparents in a short space of time and the pressures of a professional sporting environment made matters worse.

The Welsh Rugby Union said transitions and exits from the game could be turbulent, and they were focused on working on how players were supported through them.

Morgan, a former Wales under-20s player, who also turned out for his hometown club Bridgend, saw his short-lived professional career hampered by injuries.

Rugby used to be an outlet, but he said injuries and pressures of the sport intensified the grief he was experiencing.

Hear three players discuss their personal experiences with mental health.

Morgan said he received great support from his club, Swansea-based Ospreys, after opening up.

‘’I can’t fault the club, they were amazing,’’ he said. ‘’They gave me the time and the space I needed and the opportunity to go back if I wanted to take it.’’

But he is clear he doesn’t see himself returning to the professional game, adding: "People ask me now, 'do you want to get back into rugby?'

‘’I've had the opportunity to get back in and I've said no, every time. I'd rather be happy than have all those benefits of being a professional rugby player.’’

He now manages a gym and works as a fitness coach, and hopes to see more support put in place for players.

"It’s putting a space for those conversations to take place and the people of power within rugby saying 'you're struggling, what can we do to help?'

‘’It's the culture and understanding the individual and what they need.’’

Another former Ospreys player, Lloyd Ashley, has been appointed lead for mental health and wellbeing by trade body the Welsh Rugby Players Association.

‘’Just generally as a society we need to find it easier to check in on each other," he said.

Ashley hopes lessons learnt in rugby will filter through to other sports and also general society.

‘’The fact that we don't just say when somebody says to us 'how are you?', we don't just go, ‘yeah good, you?’, without even thinking about it," he said.

‘’I hope that trickles into everybody's lives because it's important that we have spaces where we feel safe enough to be honest."

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.