Brian O'Driscoll's documentary After The Roar looks at the mental health challenges faced by professional sportspeople when they retire. Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty ImagesThe final whistle on a career can come quickly, and usually too soon. It can leave a foreboding sense of the unknown. A feeling of inexpressible loss. The fear that weekends will not now carry their usual lofty purpose or meaning.
Even stepping out of his gilded era and age as he did – 141 Test matches, the 2009 Grand Slam, his final Test in 2014 ending with another Six Nations crown to boot – O’Driscoll found his retirement to be no walk in the park. With Molloy, on Off The Ball, he cuts straight to the chase, O’Driscoll admitting he had to step out of his comfort zone just to talk about these matters in the first place, aware he was showing certain vulnerabilities for the first time; however, increasingly aware it seemed of this crisis in mental health, particularly around male sports.
After The Roar also references studies which show over half of former professional sportsmen and women have concerns about their mental health, with only 40 per cent of those seek help after retiring.