Stuart Hogg, the 31-year-old Scotland full-back, has disclosed the moment in 2021 when he contemplated retiring from playing rugby.
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His announcement last month that he intends to quit playing after the upcoming World Cup in France came as a surprise to the rugby community.
Hogg, who has been selected three times for the British and Irish Lions, cited his deteriorating physical condition as the reason for his decision to retire.
“I had been thinking of it for a while. You look at the disappointment of the 2017 Lions tour, picking up all the injuries and then starting to get all the hate (online abuse),” he explained on the latest RugbyPass Offload.
“It took me a while to get over the disappointment of that tour, so for the for the couple of years ahead of the 2021 Lions tour I said, ‘Right, this is my time. I’m going to go all out to make sure I get on this tour’.
“I was chuffed to bits, over the moon to be in a position to go on a third tour. I didn’t see myself as a proper Lion until I get a Test match and if I didn’t get a Test match, to this day I still wouldn’t believe I am a proper Lion.
“So I targeted that from an individual point of view, that I am going to do everything I possibly can to get there. And I loved it, I absolutely loved it, but the only thing looking back is we played a Lions tour in South Africa with nobody in the stands.
“Since then, I have really, really struggled with my body. I had done everything to get there. I have got patellar tendinitis in both knees, worse in the right than in the left.
“I remember speaking to older boys who said you get to a certain point in your career – and it just hits you. Bang. It just hits you. I was like, ‘It will never happen to me. Never happen to me’. In 2021 after the Six Nations, that time came. It just hit me like a ton of bricks.
“I was like, ‘Holy shit, what has happened here?’ It was just game on game I was trying to do everything I possibly could to build up to play. Went on the Lions tour, had an extended time off, didn’t do any pre-season training or anything like that, I wanted to mentally switch off and recharge. Came back in, did a couple of weeks of training, straight back into playing – and I played a lot of rugby that season – and then the body just started to break down.
“I worked closely with Steve Haw, our physio at the club, and he has been absolutely outstanding. I was spending hours on the physio bed every day to get right and I have just got to the point where having a young family, it breaks my heart when my son comes up to me and says, ‘Dad, do you want to go and play football in the garden after training?’
“But I’m absolutely knackered, I’m in too much pain that I can’t go outside. I’m like, ‘Enough is enough, family is my priority and rugby has started to become a job’.”
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POSSIBLE COMEBACK:
“I think I’ll play [but] I don’t think I’ll play professional. I might have a little run-out for Hawick next season and see how that goes.”
“I’m really enjoying my new life,” he added.
“I still get the match-day buzz – the build-up to the game, the warm-up and stuff. I used to love it, and I’ve had that forever. We used to watch the Border Reivers play back in the day and my dad was obsessed with watching teams warm-up, so we used to be first in the crowd all the time watching teams warm-up, and I love that.
“You get the buzz building up to it but as soon as the whistle goes to kick-off I think: ‘Thank f*ck I’m not playing!’. The first collision you think ‘Oh god, I made the right decision!’.
“Will I play professionally again? Probably not,”
FIVE RUGBY PLAYERS WHO MADE BOLD CAREER CHANGES:
Here’s some of the most prominent rugby players to have made waves in business.
#1. Stuart Hogg – Everything
After confirming his retirement, Hogg said in a statement: “A new career beckons and I will attack in the same manner as I play the game.”
The Scotland legend has revealed he isn’t too keen on coaching, but will remain in the game as a pundit after making his debut on BBC during the 2023 Six Nations.
PUNDITRY:
Sources tell RUCK that BT Sport (soon to be TNT Sports) are keen. to recruit the fullback as a key part of their 2023/24 Premiership coverage.
RESTAURANT OWNER:
He is the co-owner of steak house Finsbay Flatiron in Glasgow.
The focus for Finsbay Flatiron is steak, specialising in 8oz flat irons (as the name suggests) and steaks from £8 on weekdays and £10 on weekends, as well as sides like mac and cheese and triple cooked chips.
DISTILLERY:
He’s a director of a distillery named Maiden Batch.
Caulker’s is a collaborative effort between five Glasgow men, two of whom happen to be British Lions and Scotland rugby internationals, Hogg and Alastair Kellock. The bottle is signed by all five.
