Ash Taylor got busy working in manual jobs during his break from footy

Million dollar rugby league star Ash Taylor is ready to return to the game with a renewed physical and mental perspective following a 2,000km hard yakka road trip.

### DO NOT USE WITHOUT GCB APPROVAL### Gold Coast Titans player Ash Taylor at Cbus Super Stadium. Picture: Jerad Williams

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Million dollar rugby league star Ash Taylor has turned to mining and hard labour to convince himself he still has the love for being a professional NRL player.

Taylor will report for training with Gold Coast Titans on Monday, 10 days after the highest-paid player in the club’s history took time out to address mental-health issues.

In the wake of the savage social media attacks that triggered Taylor’s request for a break, the 24-year-old half back spent the past week-and-a-half on a 2000km road trip from the Gold Coast to the far west Queensland town of St George, where he was raised, across the border to Lightning Ridge, finally arriving back in Brisbane on Saturday.

At each stop, Taylor not only sought comfort in family and friends, he opted to work alongside them.

Ash Taylor will return to Titans training after 10 days of hard physical work. Picture: Adam Head

Hard, physical labour. Concreting in his old home town. Down the mines in Lightning Ridge in a borrowed hard hat. Labouring on a building site in Brisbane.

Each experience was a long way from his true workplace, the lush turf of Cbus Super Stadium, and in areas so remote that he had to listen to the Titans’ victory over the Broncos on Sunday on an old transistor radio.

There were fears Taylor, touted as a State of Origin prospect just a year ago, might never play again. The pressure of being paid $1 million a year at a struggling NRL franchise and the savage criticism on social media had become too much.

The trip was all about looking at life on the other side. Instead of bringing home $83,000 a month as the Titans’ No.1 player, he checked jobs just as tough as playing NRL but worth around $80,000 a year instead.

Opal fields at Lightning Ridge. Picture: Getty Images

Having seen how the majority of Australians live, Taylor will return to work at the Titans Monday with a renewed physical and mental perspective.

He will get regular counselling and psychological help to cope with on-field pressure and off-field life choices.

“Life is about self discovery,” Titans culture chief Mal Meninga said. “Ash is still trying to find his way in life. He is only a young player.”

Titans chairman Dennis Watt applauded Taylor’s work ethic. He said: “Swinging a hammer, pushing a wheelbarrow and shoveling concrete, while working alongside family, has been good therapy for him.

“It is a reminder of the real world but also that he has other skills and a whole network of people who genuinely care for him.

“In spending time in his hometown of St George, Ash has also re-connected with his people, which is important to him as a young indigenous man.

“Ash is up for the challenge but appreciates there is hard work ahead.”

Sources close to Taylor said he struggled to escape from ­family-related personal issues that deeply affected him. As a result, the Titans are ­building better support systems around him.

Gold Coast bosses will help Taylor with family and personal issues where they can.

“Ash is a decent and generous young man who is drawn to helping others,” Watt said. “Family is enormously important to him. He is quick to put his hand up for our community work and is a real champion in that field.

“On top of our regular welfare and education programmes, the club and the NRL are working with Ash to put all the professional support around him he requires to help cope with the pressures of being in the public eye as a professional sportsman.

“Ash is ready to roll his sleeves up and get back to work. And we will be right there in his corner with him.”

Originally published as Ash Taylor got busy working in manual jobs during his break from footy