Girlfriend back's Robert Lui bid to get playing again

BANNED Robert Lui has found support in his bid to return to football from an unlikely source - the woman he admitted assaulting.

Robert Lui

BANNED Robert Lui has found support in his bid to return to football from an unlikely source - the woman he admitted assaulting.

Taleah Backo, the mother of Lui's one-year-old son, was the victim of an assault last year for which Lui was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond and fined $2000.

But the couple have bonded in Townsville this year and have been undergoing joint counselling sessions with a psychologist who has also overseen Lui's rehabilitation program.

As Lui flies to Sydney today to meet with Australian Rugby League Commission interim boss Shane Mattiske to plead for his playing ban to be overturned, Backo is providing support.

Cowboys player welfare manager Kevin Marty confirmed the couple were attending regular counselling sessions together.

Lui told The Courier-Mail: "Taleah always asks me when I am going to play footy again - she tells me she wishes I was out there playing footy again.

"I just tell her it is week by week. She supports me.

"We watch the footy on TV together at my mum's place or at her house with her family.

"I've also been spending as much time as I can with my son, watching him grow up."

It is unlikely Lui will know his fate tonight when he and Cowboys CEO Peter Jourdain meet with Mattiske to try to end the footballer's one-year playing ban.

The meeting is scheduled for 5pm at commission headquarters but it is almost certain there will be no immediate decision and likely the ARLC will take extra time to consider the matter.

There are a range of issues to consider but the Cowboys are seeking clarification because they understood that the ban only applied to the NRL, and they are keen for Lui to at least return to lower-level football.