Ben Barba has reportedly started a new job as a truck driver following his life ban from the NRL over an alleged physical altercation with his partner.

The Courier Mail reports Barba, who had yet to play a game for his new side North Queensland Cowboys when he was sacked, will get behind the wheel in his hometown of Mackay from Monday with a view to one day working in the mines.

It is a stunning fall from grace from Barba who was once named the best player in the game and commanded a salary of $500,000 a year. The average wage of a truck driver is $27.20 an hour.

Cowboys head of Football Peter Parr confirmed the club was attempting to help Barba as he picked up the pieces of his life.

“We are going to help Ben wherever possible,” he told the Courier Mail.

“At the end of the day, Ben is a human being with a partner and four young kids and we can’t just toss them out without any care.

“They are a young family and we feel we have a responsibility to help them — if indeed they want that help.”

The NRL deregistered Barba following an incident involving his partner Ainslee Currie at a Townsville casino on Australia Day.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg confirmed there was CCTV of the incident and that there was a “physical altercation between the player and his partner”.

“His registration with the game is no longer and I can’t see a time, at any time in the future, that he’ll be welcomed back,” Greenberg said.

“What I am going to say is that in the jurisdiction that I uphold, there’s no place for him. It’s probably time for Ben to find a new vocation.”

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