Laureus rugby stars open up on importance of mental health

“Everybody will go through some sort of struggle through time, through no fault of their own,” said Stuart. “Gone are the days of saying ‘man up’, we’re not living in the dinosaur era anymore. We want everybody to remain in this world. I think now people have more understanding around what it means to have mental health challenges and what we can do to help.”

“I’ve found it refreshing to hear several people talking about their struggles throughout their careers or their lives that nobody gets to see. Everyone just assumes everything’s alright. It’s almost given me the confidence to speak about the tough times or the tougher times that I’ve had and that’s a big thing for me now. I’m probably playing my best rugby now because I’m happy.”

“I think for me it was always about getting back on the field and when I’m back on the field I should be okay, I think when you’re in a position that athletes find themselves in, you get to experience amazing things and you kind of feel like you don’t deserve to feel sad or feel bad because you’re constantly trying to tell yourself life is good and actually you know what? I’m not injured anymore and I’m back on the field.

“I think reflection one of the hardest things for me was the physical side of things I had a massive amount of support with because I allowed people to support me. I didn’t have the support mentally because I never ever really let people know what was happening, I got really good a smiling on the outside and feeling terrible on the inside and I think it’s that confusing message that I was so good at telling other people, I ended up telling myself. I wish I hadn’t waited until the hardest times to talk through things and have support.

“One of the amazing things about the Laureus programmes that are linked to health and wellbeing and mental health support is that it’s there on a more regular basis, it’s recognised as something that doesn’t need to be really bad or are a really hard moment, the programmes for the young people are so inspiring. And I think the other thing is to recognise that no one deserves to feel sad and you shouldn’t compare to someone else’s life because actually it’s your life, it’s how you’re feeling and sometimes things can get on top of you and that’s ok, that’s what help is there for.”

“I came back from New Zealand, had my shoulder re-constructed, was out for four months and all I was getting was ‘is Stuart Hogg going to be back to his best, is he going to be anywhere near where he used to be?’

“I was determined to get back and really show them. Which meant I tried far too hard, I tried to be too lean, I made more mistakes than I’d made before and then I picked up another injury which meant another three months on the side-line. It was almost like, start again, build yourself back up, get back playing, get injured, repeat process.”

“I was getting absolute pelters, everywhere I was looking, newspapers, online, social media. The best thing that happened was that I went back down to Exeter, and I played against Gloucester in the bye-week, and I scored an absolute belter and I was like ‘where has that been for the last three years?’ It took me two years to run over the try line with the ball, I’d scored three kick-throughs in that time. I was like, that’s what I’m about, that’s me. I scored another belter against Italy the week after because I knew the monkey was off my back to doing what I love doing.

“I spoke to Steve Black [his mentor and friend] a lot, I spoke to Gregor [Townsend] a lot. I was getting people on social media telling me I dropped the ball because I was captain, If I wasn’t captain, I still would have dropped the ball! It’s as simple as that. Gregor told me I was still going to be captain, and just to relax and do my job because everything else was spot on. For me, scoring that try was a bit of what I know I can do. I have complete confidence in my ability and what I can do on a rugby field.”

“During lockdown I’ve done a lot of thinking that I could potentially have four or five years left of playing rugby which is quite a scary thought because it feels like only yesterday that I started. But I just said I’m not going to listen to what people have to say, I’m going to get on with it, enjoy my rugby, have some fun, and any pelters that come my way, I’m not going to read it because I don’t have access to my social media for a start which is great.”