Wests Tigers great Keith Galloway has lifted the lid on what he learned when one of his young teammates committed suicide back in 2013.
Galloway, 40, played 210 NRL games across a career which saw him enjoy stints at the Tigers and also the Cronulla Sharks.
He represented Australia and was seen as a cult figure in Tiger Town.
Now he has revealed how the death of rising star Mosese Fotuaika affected him, and how his mentality shifted as a result.
‘I’ve probably bottled a lot of stuff up in the past, but I’ve changed my outlook on that sort of area of life where men have got to speak,’ he told the Everything Counts podcast.
‘I had a young teammate, Mosese, who committed suicide a while back now.
Wests Tigers great Keith Galloway (pictured) has revealed how a young teammate committing suicide changed his mentality
Mosese Fotuaika (pictured with partner Shanice Alaiasa) took his own life in 2013 while he was with the Tigers and had a promising career ahead of him
Fotuaika (pictured running the ball against Canberra in 2012) had suffered an upper-body injury just before tragedy struck
‘If only he spoke and people knew what he was going through, we probably could’ve put our arms around him a little bit more,’ Galloway added.
Fotuaika, who was just 20 years old when he took his own life, was seen as one of the game’s most exciting up-and-coming forwards.
The front-rower died just after learning that he probably had torn his pectoral muscle during a gym session.
Learning that he could be out of action for months affected Fotuaika deeply, and he took his own life in his Merrylands townhouse not long after, despite not getting a definitive diagnosis on the injury by having scans done.
His teammate Ben Murdoch-Masila dropped him home and when he returned to pick him up again about 30 minutes later, he did not answer the door or his phone.
Fotuaika’s body was found by his girlfriend, Shanice Alaiasa, after she returned home later that evening.
The rising star’s death came as Alaiasa was heavily pregnant and ready to build a family with the Tigers player.
Mosese is the brother of Queensland star Moeaki Fotuaika.
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