ST HELENS’ Australian secondrower Joel Thompson could cut short his time in Super League.
A report Down Under suggests the 32-year-old is to retire at the end of the season with a year left on his contract.
The former Canberra Raiders, St George Illawarra Dragons and Manly Sea Eagles player, nicknamed ‘Goat’, joined Saints ahead of this season having played more than 230 times in the NRL, scoring 62 tries.
He has been a regular in Kristian Woolf’s line-up, but is said to have told the coach he is feeling the effects.
The Mole, on Wide World of Sports, wrote: “He has told Saints that his body is starting to let him down and he has personal matters back home to attend to at the end of this season.”
Born in the remote New South Wales town of Ivanhoe, Thompson became an Australian Schoolboys representative player in 2006 before joining Canberra, who handed him a debut in 2008.
He made the first of seven appearances for the Indigenous All Stars in 2010 and the first of two for the Country Origin team in 2011 before joining St George in 2014. He played for Manly from 2018-20.
An influential figure off the field, he is a strong advocate for both Indigenous voices and mental health, founding The Mindset project in 2012 and being awarded the NRL’s Ken Stephen Medal in 2016 for his community work.