Mental health? He split from his missus (she did what she thought was best obviously) and he turned to drink. You can't just decide to not go to work and run all the way to Australia for a few months to forget your problems. Sometimes stuff goes wrong in life and you HAVE to cope. My lack of sympathy probably stems from seeing family members go through far worse than this idiot.

Seriously? I hope your family are all OK now but things have moved on in society. Depression isn't just something you can pull yourself off and it affects everyone differently. I actually think he did man up by dressing the issues. With the crowd he was in and the rut, he could have spiralled out of control but he spoke up. I wish him all the best and hope he means what he says.

There is a world of difference between mental health issues and a guy drinking constantly cos he has some issues going on.

If Zak had started drinking because of this i would understand but he had been drinking heavily and partying for at least 2 years before and while things were ok with his girlfriend. This wasnt the first time he had been drinking and missing training.

Look at the World Cup. He was on verge of been kicked out a week before he was until Sinfield begged for him to be given another chance only to have Zak throw it in his face the following weekend. Was that a mental health issue too or just an immature unprofessional kid???

As always with Zak its never his fault, theres never an apology and theres never a lesson learned.

This interview is one side of the story. I know the other players had given up on Zak in the end and clearly the club had at this point too.

Unfortunately he is contracted for 3 more years and i cant see anyone buying him out of that. Hopefully this time away will have matured him a little bit and he realises his errors but i doubt it very much.

I sympathise with what he has been thru but honestly believe this is more a maturity issue than a mental health one from what i know of the situation.

I wish him well but hope he finds another club and moves on personally.

spot on

Hope he returns to us and has many more successful years at HQ. Wish him all the very best with his current situation.

If Hardaker's account is right, then he's definitely done the right thing getting away, even if for a while. It also begs the question why the club didn't give him time off instead of playing him when he was in no fit state. There's nothing there to suggest the club offered him much support at all.

However, he does seem to (understandably) want to paint himself in as good a light as possible. Given what he's said previously about being tied to a nasty 4-year contract I'm not sure I quite believe his woe is me story.

Either way Leeds shouldn't have played him as much as we did this year, its no surprise he hasn't set the world on fire at the Panthers, and all parties would probably be best served if he stayed in the NRL.

How many players who've got tainted reputations ever take responsibility for their actions and come out and say things like 'I've been an idiot, I've acted irresposibily, I've acted immaturely and been a bit selfish, I've let fame and fortune go to my head and got carried away, I've made some bad decisions'

How many come out with 'I was in a dark place? I didn't want to leave my house (though they manage to get out to the pub), I was lonely and felt I had no where to turn, I was doing it tough, I've suffered with depression'....

The 2nd set of responses are much more common, much easier to throw out there, and bring a much more sympathetic and accepting response - almost wipes the slate clean for misbehaviour immediately.

No doubt the do-gooders will claim me saying this is 'adding stigma', but that's BS. People with genuine mental health issues should be given all the help and respect in the world. I've seen first hand the trauma caused and have nothing but heart felt well wishes for anyone suffering.

But on the flip side, I can't help but feel A-holes who act like a goose on numerous occasions over a sustained period of time, who then suddenly find the 'courage' to speak about their depression when they need some positive press deserve the cynicism they get.

Could feel sorry for him apart from the story keeps changing every few weeks so never know what is being said is true .

Wow which cave did you wake up in this morning?

Compare any of our issues to some kids in Syria and they will look trivial.

The idea that we all need to man up is luddite thinking - yes he was/is an immature young man who just happened to be in the public eye. Why do we expect young men who happen to play a high profile sport to act any differently to other young men who live less public lives.

It is right, but to be fair to the club they were also in a difficult position, which Hardaker recognises. They needed all hands on ship, and didnt' quite realise the seriousness of the situation at first. When they did, they did everything they could to make things work, and in the end agreed what was right.

Can you define what genuine mental health issues are?

Think it's worth pointing out that he doesn't actually say he had depression nor is that word used at all. It reads to me as someone who was perhaps grieving after a significant loss. Whilst both are awful their is a difference between depression and grieving.

Can you?

Probably more than almost anyone a "professional sportsman" is defined by his job. For most of us a job is just a job. Personal life, public life, work, social media etc. all merge into one for guys like Hardaker. I strongly believe you can't run away from yourself, so moving half the way round the world takes Hardaker no further from whatever is going on in his head, but it does get him away from a lot of the outside stuff that is affecting the way he does his job.
FWIW I thought he was no worse than the rest of the team when I saw him play this year, I really don't know much about how he was affecting his teammates though.

If he comes back next season he's got to change some of his more harmful behaviours.
Boredom is a problem I think for sportsmen. You can't train all the time, there is a lot of downtime and there is the comedown from the adrenaline of playing. I get the impression Hardaker is affected more than others. $h1t happens to everyone in their personal life. It's understandable if you down a bottle of something and don't fancy coming into work for a couple of days. The problem with Hardaker seems to be that he has no credit in the bank to do this due to the times he's acted like a bell end for apparantly no other reason than actually being a bell end.

If he comes back he has to train well, behave properly, bin social media and watch what he drinks - if at all during the season. If he does all that he should play well and he should be in a much better place to handle the everyday stresses of life (alcohol is a depressant - it just makes things worse).

No. I wouldn't try. It's useful for pharmaceutical companies to categorise people so they can then prescribe them expensive medication but it's a very slippery road. Everyone has mental issues of one sort or another, to different degrees. I've recently seen my Dad die with/of dementia; I've seen numerous friends suffer extreme reactions to relationship problems/breakdowns; I've seen a work colleague die from the effects of his inability to come out; another work colleague - physically a giant of a man - attempt suicide due to relationship problems; another has just returned after 6 months off with what was called work stress/anxiety. I'm not a doctor but I would say telling any of these people to man up wouldn't have been a cure. They were all people who had an illness at a particular time in their lives. They were all genuine. I don't particularly like Hardaker as a person from what I can see. He is a very lucky person to have the talent & lifestyle he has. But mental health affects everyone either directly or indirectly.