FORMER Bradford Bulls and Huddersfield Giants forward, Oliver Roberts, has opened up on being severely dyslexic and hating school as a young child and teen.
Roberts, who currently plies his trade in the Championship with Sheffield Eagles, came through the Bradford academy to debut in 2013.
After six appearances for the Bulls, the forward made his way to Huddersfield – his hometown club – and eventually registered over 100 appearances for the Giants.
Various loan spells with Sheffield, Oldham and Salford Red Devils followed before Roberts made the permanent move to Sheffield ahead of the 2023 season.
But, what a lot of people don’t realise is that the 29-year-old had a tough start to life at school – and found another avenue instead to focus his time.
“I suffer with really bad dyslexia so reading and writing stuff for me is a no go,” Roberts told the Trot The Egg In podcast.
“When I was at private school they classed me as a lazy child. They didn’t run any tests or pick up on anything – they just thought I didn’t want to learn.
“My mum paid for a diagnosis and found out I was severely dyslexic so then I had the support going into mainstream school. Then I went through to high school.
“But, I hated school. School was my bugbear. I didn’t want to go and I got bad anxiety around school but I couldn’t even tell you why.
“I had the best group of mates you could ever think of, but you couldn’t have paid me to go.
“My uncle was a bit of a ‘wheeler and dealer’ and so was my grandad. He would me up to the horses instead of school and I would go to different auctions, doing something different every day.
“Doing that instead of going to school gave me life skills whilst I was playing rugby in the background.”
Click here to get the digital edition of League Express
Click here to subscribe to the print edition of League Express
League Express is also widely available from local newsagents across the north of England.
