Australian cricketer and Melbourne Renegades star, Sophie Molineux won’t be accompanying the team to Ballarat for the next game against rivals Melbourne Stars as she has stepped away from cricket for a while to focus on her mental health wellbeing. Recently, 3 male Australian cricketers – Glenn Maxwell, Nic Maddinson and Will Pucovski have stepped away from the game for the same reason.
The opening batter and left-arm spinner suffered a shoulder injury early this year and had to undergo a shoulder reconstruction, followed by months of recovery forcing her to skip a couple of series for Australia. She recently made a comeback in the Women’s Big Bash League 05.
Sophie Molineux takes an indefinite break from cricket to focus on mental health. #WBBL pic.twitter.com/9lOP4AkwVA
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) November 22, 2019
Australia Women’s Team Doctor Pip Inge said Cricket Australia will work closely with Sophie to ensure she has the support she needs and will assist her with making a comeback when she gets ready to do so. “The welfare of our players is a priority and we are proud of the brave decision by Sophie to step away from the game,” Inge said.
Cricket Australia is digging deep and taking steps to increase resourcing to identify and address mental health issues among young players and extra research work is being taken up by the Mental-health research group Orygen, based in Melbourne. Psychologists will be on-site during events to provide support.
CA and ACA will also be rolling out programmes for 300 or so Australian men’s and women’s national and state players that will help them with developing awareness about mental health issues and literacy.
Online therapy platforms can be a good option for mental health support. You can read https://www.regain.us/
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