It must be something bad as he never looked the stressed out type, that's how he came across at forums etc, really laid back, sort of uncomplicated y'know, like he would have laughed hysterically at that Meerket advert for weeks on end.

The stigma of stress and depression means a lot of people are able to hide it quite well, you get the time honoured line all the time off families when someone commits suicide of

"i always thought they was so happy, i never realised"

Cheer up Martin Gleeson..

Yeah, I guess.

Shame really, he's one of the few backs in SL I enjoy watching to be honest.

Sally has summed up this bizarre view of Gleeson. The guy has notched up plenty of awards over his career and they've been fully deserved. If the bloke likes to live life dangerously who cares?

I bet he reaches similar situations to Franky 4 fingers in the film, Snatch. Soon as somebody mentions booze he has a crazy flashback - in his case probably with Sean Long in a travelodge wearing pink knickers being whipped by two Asian hookers.

This thread has been a lot more mature discussion than some of those on other boards but a couple of the posts on here just sum up my point.

This business where everybody seems to want to be in the know and pass and spread on gossip has always just seemed totally bizarre to me, it just strikes me as a load of attention seekers. If someone wants to get a bit of attention they can just come on the internet make a few cryptic comments and say "can't say officially on here but if anyone wants to know by PM I will tell em" then on come all the sheep "hey could u PM me pls mate", all wanting to give this sad act the attention for repeating a rumour which he/she has either read somewhere else on the net.

This happens in all the working class towns/cities, where most people have hard lives and have bugger all in their lives, but they all want to peddle gossip about people from their community who have actually made it, and usually its negative. All my Geordie mates who you would think would think the sun shines out of Alan Shearers backside, like to tell me that "great player, but if you meet him in person, he's a complete idiot", I've asked them, have you met him? and it's "no but ask any taxi driver". They all have the same stories about Cheryl Cole as well.

Wigan is one of the worst towns for this, I bet you any Wiganer you meet, will be able to tell you all sorts of stuff about Martin Gleeson, Martin Aspinwall etc, again it's all "my mate saw him out in town and this happened", but to be honest I could join in all these rumours as well....because I've read them all on the net. It happens up in Leeds where I live now, everybody up here has an Ellery Hanley story, usually related to anecdotes of his superhuman strength and success with the local females, I think some of them are just reworked Chuck Norris stories.

Gleeson is hardly unique at moving from top club to top club. Hanley and Andy Gregory did it, Lee Gilmour and Paul Johnson as well.

There's a difference between that and ending up like Bobbie Goulding, being passed around by Hudds (when they were bottom of the league), Wakefield, Salford and Leigh at the end of his career. Bobbie is the one who wasted his talent, which he now freely admits, remember him in his late 20s, when he was still a good enough player to play for a top team, being an angry man sticking his fingers up and wobbling his belly at us, you knew that he was frustrated with how things had turned out.

Lets not forget Martin Gleeson for all his supposed long history of indiscretions, was scoring twice at Old Trafford and picking up a Grand Final medal only eight months ago. For most people that would be the high point pinnacle of their career. For Gleeson it is supposedly in a period of decline.

You are going to get that in forums though. Transfer gossip, rumours of absence, who's doing what? Who's best friends off the field. Who's been spotted drunk in town etc etc.

We're a small sport in comparison to some, but we have many fans. As such, there is limited amount of fact to talk about, unless you want to constantly talk about previous facts? That would become a bit tedious after a while.

I like rumours of transfers, mainly because I will then begin to cast my eye over that player, gives me something else to watch in a neutral game (although I watch any rugby league game, I really enjoy the sport).

I know the defamation of character style is a bit off at times, but to be honest, the media are full of it as well. All these 'sources close to' and 'guess who was'. Shame really, I avoid tabloids completly. One recent one was that missing architect who was killed. The landlord was arrested, the papers were full of stories calling him a wierdo etc etc, he gets released without charge. Never once do the apologise.

I must admit though, if someone has a story about a rugby league player, I will listen to it. Its my passion (rugby, not gossip)

I know of a teacher who was recently given 6 months off work because she was going through a divorce. And guess who's paying her wages? Yes, me and you, so she can lie back and wollow in her own mire.

never forget the time I was an apprentice in Trafford Park. A bloke came into work 1 monday morning looking knackered. When asked why he looked so tired, he replied that he had been in the hospital all night with his mother who was dying and eventually died in the night. When asked what the bloody hell he was doing coming into work ( by the foreman), he replied, " I did'nt know whatelse to do, you've just got to get on with it."

they don't make em like they used to.

I know a guy who ran someone over in a bus and killed them, it wasn't his fault but he went off sick with 'stress'.

Poor him eh, he should of just got on with it ?

The PC brigade on here are embarrassing. Gleeson is a mug who's brought all this on himself, don't give him pity, as he never felt sorry for you when he took your money in his wage packet and blown it up the wall getting blitzed.

Still, I've worked with plenty of people that have had time off work due to 'stress', and, in most cases, they bring it on themselves through their own actions. It wouldn't surprise me if this is the same as Gleeson.