Gale opens up on mental health struggles

Castleford Tigers half-back Luke Gale has opened up on the mental hardship of his injury nightmare over the last two seasons.

The England international has played just 11 Super League games in 18 months and the odds are stacked against him to feature at all this year.

Gale was ruled out for the entire 2019 season after rupturing his Achilles tendon in January, however there is now an outside chance he could feature this campaign.

The 30-year-old has been working hard to overcome the injury and speaking to Betfred’s Podcast he revealed the mental struggles of his latest setback.

“The mental side of it is tough. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t had some dark days,” he said.

“My wife and I had a six week old baby at the time and it was a month off the start of the season when I was ready to put 2018 behind me, the timing was terrible.

“The first six weeks were probably the toughest. My motivation was down but I snapped out of it and got back into training with the lads and was ready to make amends.

“Not being a part of it on game day is hard but It’s not being part of it on a daily basis that is one of the toughest things to deal with, missing out is hard to watch.

“I have taken a step back and reflected on how lucky I am to do what I’m doing and I’m cherishing and enjoying things a lot more and probably took a few things for granted before all this.”