RECENTLY, another rugby league star followed in Jacques O’Neill’s footsteps by going into the Love Island villa.
That man is Leigh Leopards centre Keanan Brand who was announced as a bombshell on the ITV2 hit reality show last week.
For Leigh boss Adrian Lam, when Brand first approached him about the offer, he first didn’t know what to do before talking to owner Derek Beaumont.
“Keanan Brand is on love island. When it first happened, he approached me and me and Derek were supportive of him doing that.
“He was at our one of our training sessions, he was part of the Irish World Cup squad and came in off the back of an operation.
“He brought it up and initially I thought ‘what do we do about this?’ I went in front of Derek and everyone was supportive of him.”
Lam went on to explain how the Leopards squad is close knit and that everyone should be given a chance whether that’s in the sport or outside it.
“Everyone within the squad are part of the family and we want to make sure everyone gets an opportunity in their life whether it’s rugby league or elsewhere,” Lam continued.
“The club is right behind him, we will support him through the process and when he comes out we will give him time to prepare and come back into the group.
“It’s an opportunity for us to watch it as part of our week. There are funny scenes we have been watching and the town is right behind him, everyone will watch him and have a bit of fun with it.”
The Leigh head coach also revealed that if word got out about Brand going on Love Island, then the show’s bosses would not have accepted him onto the show.
“It was difficult because we weren’t allowed to tell anyone about it because if we did he wouldn’t have been allowed to go on the show.”
