Newcastle Knights coach Wayne Bennett addressed the media after Darius Boyd admitted himself into a mental health clinic on Wednesday to treat depression.
“I am pleased for Darius that he has recognised he has a problem, it is a self-admission one and he booked himself into rehab this morning,” Bennett explained.
"He's always had different little issues, but no more than I've noticed in the past.
"I've always had a close relationship and good communication with him, but late last week he started to talk more about it… and he realised he needed to get some professional help.
“You have to make the first admission yourself, he has probably been fighting that for the last few months.
“Were there absolutely certain signs? No. Were there some signs? Yes.
“Darius has been working with counsellors for quite a period of time.”
Bennett explained Boyd was comfortable that the general public has been made aware of his illness.
“Darius is comfortable with that, he isn’t trying to hide anything," Bennett added.
“There are no lies and no deceit, we all know about it and he can get on with his life.
"I am quite confident he can recover from this and be recognised for the wonderful player that he is and let us all understand that he has a few demons.
“The public Darius, he has struggled with that, it’s just somethig he is not comfortable with and he has probably made it into a bigger issue that what it really is.
“Hopefully through this process it might bring it to a point where he can handle it better going forward.
“It may explain some of his behaviour… it is easy to sit in condemnation of people, and we have a great habit of that.
"We all have to make our own choices in how we handle situations and people and what we say about someone else.”
Bennett also addressed an issue that was reported in the media on Wednesday about a Hunter Valley hotel.
“I spoke to Darius this morning about that, the Club had no knowledge of it,” Bennett said.
“It was his birthday last week, he was there with some friends from Brisbane and there was an incident.
“Whether he was involved it in or not, that is not the issue right now.
“The hotel has made no complaint whatsoever. It has been repaired. We have spoken to management, they are satisfied with the process that has taken place and it has been resolved.”
The Club's main priority is on Boyd's health and not his return to football.
“I don’t know how long he will be there (rehabilitation), he doesn’t know that, it is wait and see now,” Bennett said.
"To be honest with you, he's had a great love affair with football and maybe many times in his life, football's been the thing that's held him together.
"But right now, football's not the thing that's holding him together.
"It's his health and he realises that and football is secondary to everything else."
Sione Mata’utia will make his NRL debut, replacing Boyd at the back for Friday night’s game against the Sydney Roosters at Hunter Stadium.
