The important Super League change Keith Mason wants to see to protect players’ mental health

Rugby league is in the midst of change as IMG begin to re-imagine the sport we love.

But there is one thing that former St Helens and Huddersfield Giants man Keith Mason wants to see addressed and that’s providing players with a future and doing more for them to prepare them for the end of their careers as he admitted he and others have struggled with their mental health in the past.

“Protecting players, setting something for players to go into. A lot of my ex-teammates from St Helens, Huddersfield and others, we have all been through some kind of depression or mental illness because you get let to their own devices,” Mason said when discussing what he thinks rugby league needs.

“That’s where I think, if the players had someone to help them to save their money every six months, because a lot of players come from council estates, it’s a working man’s game.

“A lot get dragged up, we’re not union players, we don’t go to colleges so when young players earn money, they don’t know what to do with it so Super League needs someone whose fulltime job is to help with that so that they can invest when they are 25, 26 so they can have something that they can go into.

“That’s the pathway we’re using for Lukas [his son] having spoken to Kev Brown about it. If he works hard and achieves what he wants to achieve, hopefully when he is 25 or 26 he can set something up and have a second income.

“I would have a welfare person who is really smart on how to invest money and look after it and I think you need mental health coaches and everyone needs one at the club fulltime so they can speak to someone high up with that and I think every club needs that so you can speak to them every day.

“You think about the head knocks you have every week, your body isn’t meant to be smashed up so talking to someone and sitting down, life goes on as well there are stresses and pressures.”