Welsh rugby player retires
Popular Welsh rugby player Lloyd Ashley has retired from the sport.
Ashley played his last match for Swansea against RGC on Saturday, two years after leaving the Ospreys, where he spent a decade and became one of a small group of players to represent the region 150 times. He also played for Wales at age grade level.
The second row, 33, is admired throughout the game, helping fellow professionals in his role as a mental health advocate. He set up his own business, Living Well With Lloyd Ashley, while still a frontline player. The company provides a wide range of services but at its core, it promotes mental health awareness. Ashley himself goes into schools to deliver mental resilience programmes that often focus particularly on young men between the ages of 14 and 18.
Confirming his career was over, he wrote on social media: “Thank you rugby and the people who have been there for me and the people I have met on the way.
“I leave the game feeling proud, happy and with the energy to want to support the people involved in the game (and special people you are). I say to my body, my mind & my wife , thank you for letting me choose when the time was right to make this call.
“This is goodbye to the grass, but hopefully with my work through @livingwellwithlloydashley this won’t be our last meaningful conversation.”