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Roosters star Angus Crichton has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is on indefinite leave from the sport.
Crichton’s father, Charlie, released a statement on Thursday that confirmed the NSW and Australia representative player was receiving treatment.
“I can confirm today that Angus is under appropriate professional support and treatment for medically diagnosed bipolar disorder, which he has been dealing with for some time,” Charlie Crichton said as per reports on Nine News.
“He is fully supported by his family, his management and the Sydney Roosters club as he works towards recovery.
“While no timeline has been set for his return to rugby league, we will continue to trust his medical team and know those within the rugby league community will respect his right to privacy during this time.”
It was reported that Crichton had seen a number of specialists before the diagnosis was made and the Roosters have granted a leave of absence.
His absence has been the source of speculation before his father’s statement.
“We’ve just been supporting him, he’s going through some things at the moment. We can’t really go into detail, but we’re supporting him and hopefully, he can be back at training,” captain James Tedesco said recently.
“He’s an important part of our team. He was one of the best back-rowers in the game last year. We miss him, and we want him out there playing with us.”
Crichton, 27, was a member of the Kangaroos squad at the World Cup at the end of the 2022 season.
Meanwhile, Tedesco has issued a warning to the Sydney Roosters’ early-season opponents, with the NRL club putting an emphasis on a fast start and beating their round-one curse.
Favourites for their opening-round matches in every season dating back to 2018, the Roosters have walked away with just one round-one win in that time.
The four season-opening losses include a shock defeat to Wests Tigers at the start of 2018, as well a 20-6 humbling from the lowly-ranked Newcastle to start 2022.
And the Roosters have decided enough is enough.
It’s part of the reason why coach Trent Robinson gave minutes to part of his first grade team in their opening trial, before running out all fit players against Manly last week.
That second trial ultimately ended in defeat, but the Roosters are clear they would rather disappointment now than on March 5 against the Dolphins.
“It’s probably become a trait of ours to start the year slowly,” Tedesco admitted.
“We have earmarked that we want to start the season strong. We have a bye in round four, so we want to get the year off to a good start.
“We weren’t happy with that trial, but sometimes that was happening in round one. And we were scrambling for the first three rounds trying to work out what went wrong.
“We played the trial, we were disappointed with it. But it’s a positive we have a couple of weeks to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen in round one.”
The Roosters know they have the chance to be genuine premiership contenders again, with recruit Brandon Smith labelling their roster the best in the NRL this week.
But Tedesco has pointed to last season as to why a fast start is crucial.
The club were beaten by fellow-finalists South Sydney in round three, and then upset by the out-of-form St George Illawarra on Anzac Day and Canterbury a week later.
It left them out of the top four for all but one week of the season, and needing to win the majority of their post-State of Origin matches to make the finals.
By the time the Roosters reached the finals they were injury-ravaged, and with no second chance available were knocked out by the Rabbitohs.
“We needed a couple of wins at the start of the year to get us in the top four,” Tedesco said.
“And we were still scambling for top eight with four or six rounds to go.
“Usually I have a week off, but I had to play every game because we were still fighting for a spot. That shows the importance of getting the wins early.”
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