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Calling lineouts is Kearnan Myall's forte. But calling out for help when in desperate need proved a far more difficult proposition for the towering Yorkshireman.

The 32-year-old's area of setpiece expertise is well-known within rugby union to the extent where, when still in his mid-20s, he was called in by Oxford University to run their lineout which featured a future Wasps team-mate, Will Rowlands.

Later this year the former Leeds Carnegie second row will be returning to the famous learning establishment with a far greater goal ahead than securing safe possession of a spiralling rugby ball.

Having played 133 times for the Black and Golds since arriving in 2013 from Sale Sharks, Myall's full-time professional rugby career is coming to an end as he commences a PhD in Psychiatry, researching mindfulness and mental health in athletes this Autumn.

It's a topic close to the heart of the 6ft 7in tall lock after suffering his own off-the-field battles that he still actively manages to this day.

"Like most people, the start of my career was fantastic," he said. "I was on top of the world for the best part of 10 years. I made my debut in the Premiership when I was 18/19 then played first team throughout.

"For me it was about five years ago I experienced out of nowhere crippling depression.

(Image: Dave Howlett)

"Looking back five years ago, it's very different to how it is now. The RPA has done some incredible work with the Lift the Weight campaign and things like that to change the environment and the way mental health is talked about.

"There's still a lot of work to do and that's why I want to get into what I want to get into. But certainly my interest in it comes from struggling and not being able to talk to anybody about it."

Tackling Masters studies while mastering line-out calls

Myall graduated through the famous Leeds Carnegie Academy under the tutelage of future England coach Stuart Lancaster and alongside the likes of Danny Care, Rob Webber, Jordan Crane and Rob Vickerman. He has gone on to amass nearly 200 Premiership appearances for Carnegie, Sale and Wasps.

Alongside his rugby he spent nine years completing a Maths and Economics degree with the Open University and is currently finishing a Masters in Applied Neuroscience - which in his own words has 'quite a heavy focus on mental health which is what kind of gave me the interest to conduct the research in athlete mental health'.

(Image: 2011 Getty Images)

Having spent 13 years at the top level of English professional rugby, the Huddersfield-born forward has witnessed what he believes to be a 'wildly disproportionate' focus placed on the physical and mental side of players' welfare.

"A lot of it is from personal experience," he said. "When I reflect on my route through rugby from an Academy player into a first-team player and then into a regular first-team into an older, senior player, and you look at the amount of time and effort, money and resources that are spent on making players as physically robust as possible. Then you look at the effort that goes into making them mentally robust, and it's so wildly disproportionate.

"If you look at the support staff you have in rugby, you have team of support staff, a team of conditioners, physios, nutritionists, in-turns, an S&C department with eight or nine people in it, and if you're lucky, you might have one sports psychologist. A lot of teams don't even have that.

"For me, it seems like the natural next step for professional sport. It's looking after a player's mental well-being. Because number one it makes them a happier person, and number two, it just follows that they'll then do better at their job as well."

Myall's secret behind finding a happier place

Myall admits to being in a happier place now but actively takes steps to help prevent his mental health issues from the past making an unwelcome return.

"The way that you need to approach things like depression is, it's just like any physical health. You get ill and you can get better, it doesn't mean you're not going to get ill again.

(Image: Dave Howlett)

"I take steps each day, I meditate regularly. That's something I am going to focus on in my PhD and it's something that has helped me incredibly, and it's something if it's done in the right way can make you better at sport, better at training, by controlling your intentions, controlling your urges, controlling what you think about. In any task, not just sport, but in general life, general jobs. It's something that I definitely consider how best to optimise my mental health as much as my physical health."

Myall may have received messages praising his retirement from rugby but they've proven to be a little premature. He hopes to earn Oxford Blues honours during his studies and harbours ambitions of adding four more Premiership appearances to reach the 200 milestone.

But when he does finally hang up his trusty size 11 boots, Myall hopes he, and the sport of rugby union, will be in a position for him to use his experiences and studies to benefit future generations of professional players.

"I don't have any direct plans or any job that I am trying to get at the end of it," he explained. "I am looking at the future of sport, and, from a performance point of view, finding little ways of improving player performance. I think mental well-being is one that is vastly under resourced at the moment. So I think the jobs that I want don't even exist yet and hopefully my research will contribute to creating those."

Myall only learned in February that his Oxford application was successful prompting him to make the difficult decision to end his six-season stay with Wasps.

In a career that has been characterised by making the right decisions on the pitch, this could prove to be his most important call yet.