‘What future have I got? It’s scary’: Guy Thompson’s shock at Leicester Tigers axe just days before the coronavirus lockdown started
Last month, Guy Thompson had just finished his morning session in Oadby when his world was turned on its head.
As he walked back from the Leicester Tigers training pitch to the changing rooms, he was called into Geordan Murphy’s office for a quick chat. Thompson spent years working his way up from National Three, where he earned £50 a game, to the Premiership, but his journey was about to be brought to a painful halt.
He was told that he would be released at the end of the season and, having been on the brink of the England squad two years ago, he was suddenly staring down a barrel of unemployment.
‘It was a quick, 10-minute conversation,’ says Thompson.
‘Geordie is a really good man and it was as hard for him to dish out the news as it was for me to take it. I don’t have a bad word to say against him. When you’re in that room, you have to keep reminding yourself that it’s not personal. Let’s be honest, rugby’s a business. Loyalty is difficult in sport because we as players are commodities, stock, infantry… whatever you want to call it. But it still hurts. It’s hard to take when you’re basically being told that you’ve passed your sell-by-date. I left the room thinking, “S***, what am I going to do now?”
Thompson wrote his name into Leicester folklore when his starring performance at Newcastle last season almost single-handedly saved the Tigers from relegation. But the club have signed a younger, South African flanker – Cyle Brink – and Thompson is the man to make way.
Little did he know, however, that days after his meeting the country would be forced into a coronavirus lockdown. It has left players like Thompson – unsung heroes who form the bedrock of the Premiership – facing a future of uncertainty. Aged 33, Thompson is a senior player but talks with prospective employers have stalled because of the sport’s financial struggles.
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