Former Warrington Wolves man opens up on being told he has saved six lives & needing to seek help as he leads mental health campaign

Greg Inglis is one of the best players to grace a rugby league field in the modern era.

He started at Melbourne and helped them to a 2008 Grand Final triumph before joining South Sydney Rabbitohs where he was a try scorer in their 2014 Grand Final win over Canterbury.

A Queensland and Australia representative, he won the World Cup in 2013.

He retired at the end of 2019 and in 2020 The Goanna Academy with aims to end the stigma surrounding mental health in Australia, especially for Indigenous Australians, men, and young people after he had battled with his own demons following retirement.

He came out of retirement in 2021 to play for Warrington Wolves in Super League but after just three games retired once again and has since thrown himself back into his efforts to help people deal with their own mental health battles.

The fullback recently opened up about his struggles in the Daily Telegraph revealing that at least six people have told him that he helped save their life, the youngest of which was 16.

Inglis described some of the stories he hears as “heartbreaking” and revealed that it leaves him seeking help himself.

‘I then need to seek help too. It happens regularly,’ Inglis admitted to The Daily Telegraph.

‘But you can’t work in this space without working on yourself.’

Inglis often spends hours a day in meditative sleep to process the stories he hears day to day.

Inglis doesn’t want to betray the confidence of the young people he speaks to about the issues they face including sexual abuse and self harm.

This is what makes it so draining for him.

He said: ‘Because kids especially, they can smell bulls**t a mile away.

‘I have to go there as somebody who not only dealt with what they have, but still deals with it now. I have to be genuine about my own experiences because it’s only once I get personal with them that they can trust me.’