Dan Carter: ‘Seeing a psychologist allowed me to confront my demons’

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The World Cup winner discusses what makes a great player, rugby’s mental burdens and switching sports for Soccer Aid

Dan Carter may be one of the leading rugby players of any era, a World Cup winner and the record points scorer in Test rugby, but he admits to being captured by nerves as he prepares for the end of his career in Europe before moving to Japan. The New Zealand fly-half, whose three-year stint with Racing 92 ended in anticlimax when injury ruled him out of the European Champions Cup final against Leinster last month and the Pro 14 semi-final against Castres, is in the Rest of the World squad for the Soccer Aid match against England at Old Trafford at 8pm on Sunday night.

“I am more nervous than I have ever been before a rugby game,” says Carter, who scored 1,598 points in 112 appearances for the All Blacks. “I have not got a football background and suddenly I am running around a field with football superstars. It’s crazy. I am not sure where I will play, on the left flank I imagine, but I am just happy to be alongside so many legends of the game and at Old Trafford. Not many Kiwis can boast that.”

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Written by Paul Rees
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jun/10/dan-carter-seeing-a-psychologist-allowed-me-to-confront-my-demons under the title “Dan Carter: ‘Seeing a psychologist allowed me to confront my demons’”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.