{"id":146433,"date":"2021-10-19T08:12:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T08:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=146433"},"modified":"2021-10-19T09:56:59","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T09:56:59","slug":"nrl-outcasts-mental-demons-laid-bare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=146433","title":{"rendered":"NRL outcast's mental 'demons' laid bare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wests Tigers<\/a> recruit Jackson Hastings<\/a> has opened up on the mental "demons" that have plagued his adult life and the fatherless childhood that caused them.<\/p>\n

Hastings, 25, has returned to Australia after three years playing in England, and is currently quarantining before joining the Tigers for pre-season next month.<\/p>\n

He was a Dragons junior but spent his 47 NRL games at the Roosters then Sea Eagles, but struggled to assimilate at those clubs and left the country after reports of a physical altercation with Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans<\/a> while on a team trip in 2018.<\/p>\n

The halfback has since earned plenty of respect in England over his time at Salford and Wigan, and says he wants to return to the NRL as a leader and someone young people can look up to.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Nine's Danny Weidler from quarantine, Hastings opened up in an emotional interview about why he struggled to find a foothold in the NRL last time.<\/p>\n

"I'll be honest, I've always been a bit of a loner," Hastings said.<\/p>\n

"Always done everything on my own. I was an only child for a long period of time, I was very single-minded and narrow approached towards rugby league.<\/p>\n

\"Jackson<\/p>\n

"I still to this day don't have many friends, I've got a very small group of people that I trust, I find it very hard to let people in.<\/p>\n

"I fight demons all the time, mate. I have done since I was a kid, I've got deep-seated stuff that I've got to deal with, and still deal with it today.<\/p>\n

"Instead of hold onto that\u2026 I let it out. I found out as soon as people put their arm around it, it just changed me as a bloke."<\/p>\n

Hastings revealed he began seeing a therapist when stuck in lockdown in England.<\/p>\n

"When we went through the lockdown in England I went through about 28 sessions in eight weeks," he said.<\/p>\n

"To the lady that helped me, we did about 15 over Zoom, and she made me feel so comfortable being able to break down barriers and just be myself.<\/p>\n

"When I was a kid I thought it's not cool to cry or show my emotions, and it's finally got to a point where I'm comfortable in my own skin."<\/p>\n

Hastings' father, Kevin, is a Roosters legend.<\/p>\n

\"Penrith<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old says as a young player trying to crack it in the NRL he was constantly accused of riding his father's coat tails.<\/p>\n

But the truth is, he never knew Kevin.<\/p>\n

"There's a lot of deep-seated stuff from my childhood. Not having my dad around is one," he said.<\/p>\n

"I didn't realise that it affected me until I spoke to this person, she broke down my childhood\u2026 I was lucky I had a great childhood. My mum did everything for me, had a great family around me, but I had no father figure.<\/p>\n

"It's a weird relationship\u2026 my dad was never in my life, he was in America until I was 18.<\/p>\n

"I can't even remember the last time I saw him."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wests Tigers recruit Jackson Hastings has opened up on the mental "demons" that have plagued his adult life and the fatherless childhood that caused them. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146435,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146433\/revisions\/146435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}