Stuart Hogg felt like he had nothing left in his tank. Credit: Getty Images/David Rogers
Former Scotland captain Stuart Hogg laid bare the anguish that drove him to leave professional rugby union ahead of the World Cup by admitting he felt 'completely lost' during last year's Six Nations tournament , and showed he was the slowest player on Gregor Townsend's team during pre-season testing. /p>
Hogg, who scored 100 caps for Scotland in March, originally planned to retire after the World Cup, but put forward the decision after what he called a «terrible» period of awareness and candor with his wife this summer. /p>
“I felt like I was behind the pace,” the 31-year-old said in the interview below with Hugo Monnier for TNT Sports, whom he joined as a pundit ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.
“Going through the high speed gate, I was the slowest. I've never been like this before. I was in agony because of the hard pitches and double sessions. I just got to the point where I was exhausted physically and emotionally. We had a little vacation, and I came back here and said to Jill: «I can't do this anymore.»
“Yes, stopping is heartbreaking,” Hogg added. “But I’d rather stop now, when I’m happy, and then I’ll go to the World Cup and I won’t feel like myself, I won’t reach the standards that I set for myself, and I won’t enjoy it. The love of the game is gone; and when it's gone, it's very, very difficult to return as a player.»
Gregor Townsend, head coach of Scotland, was praised for his empathy during an emotional phone call with the titled full-back. Hogg, who burst into tears over his dilemma, suggested that giving up the captaincy was also a struggle.
“Honestly, I tried to call Gregor,” he said. “He went through the selection process to get me into the wider [World Cup] team and there will be a lot of talk about that. At this time last year, I was still captaining Scotland.
“When I was on the fall campaign [in 2022], I told Gregor, ‘In terms of leadership, I don’t want to get involved. I had to go there and focus on myself. You told me that I am one of the best players on the team; just let me be it.”
“That's all I've been focusing on. Then I went to the Six Nations and felt completely lost. I was in a leadership group for the better part of eight years and just felt like I didn't have anything else. I just felt completely lost.”
“Going to this World Cup, I felt like I was old before my time,” Hogg explained. “There was nothing there to excite me.
“It was very, very difficult because you went from a captain to a regular player. For someone who's been in a management position for so long and had nothing, I felt, «Wow, that's a little weird.» I explained everything to Gregor, and it seemed to me that I no longer belonged to this camp.
Hogg, a Premier League and Champions Cup winner with the Exeter Chiefs in 2020 and a key player in Townsend's Pro12-winning Glasgow Warriors in 2015, was named Six Nations Player of the Year in 2016 and 2017. He has also toured with the British and Irish Lions three times, earning two Test matches in 2021 against South Africa.
Townsend, in the words of his old skipper, «couldn't have been better» and insisted that » the door is always open.» ” if Hogg wants to visit the Scotland camp. The latter also recalled that he was physically unable to play football with his son. Expecting a fourth child, he hopes his new career will allow him to spend more time with his family.
“I decided to retire because I want the best for myself and I want the best. for my family,” Hogg said. «I think I made the right decision.»
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