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By Lee Stace

IT’S HARD to see Gavin Henson bouncing back after being rightfully shown the door by the Cardiff Blues following a heavily publicised drunken incident on a flight from Glasgow to the Welsh capital last weekend.

It really is. No club in their right mind would even consider employing the celebrity and oompa loompa-coloured midfielder given his off-field track record. He is simply bad for business; bad for any club’s brand or image.

His latest indiscretion was the final straw. Going out drinking until 5am following a loss is bad enough. To continue drinking on a 7am flight while throwing ice cubes at passengers in the cabin is just disgraceful.

It is not behaviour befitting a professional rugby player.

But then again, this is Henson we are talking about. The man has a bad-boy reputation.

His list of off-field indiscretions is longer the than Nile River. This is a guy who was charged with disorderly conduct on a train in 2007 (the case was later dropped); a guy who was cautioned by police following an alleged assault in Cardiff in 2009 and released by Toulon after getting into a drunken altercation with a teammate at a Riviera nightspot last year.

He was also forced to apologise to teammates for comments he made in his autobiography in 2005.

For Henson, the short-term deal at Cardiff represented the last opportunity for him to re-ignite his stalled career. It was a chance to show the world that he still wanted to be a rugby player, not a reality television star.

He even spoke of such desire when he put pen to paper with the side last year, saying that he wanted to play for Wales again and was very much playing for his future.

Well, after eight games for the Blues, his future is dead and buried.

No team, be it a Welsh, Aviva Premiership or French Top 14 outfit, will want to go near him now and with good reason too. He is simply too much of a liability to have on their books.

He is simply trouble personified.

Follow me on Twitter: @LeeMichaelStace

Posted Comments

dodger

10-04-2012
17:27:40

oompa loompa ha ha!!! what a dick this guy is just like that goalie from sydney, ryder, players who think they're bigger than their teams and all these guys over the past that just dont get it.ah the ego is a funny thing and half the support people availiable, the pro sportspeople these days pander to them.

Phil

05-04-2012
18:28:00

Spot on mate. Sadly he's a liability. Not the sharpest tool in the box but an instinctive and talented rugby player. He's wasted many opportunities and his god given talent. Booze and celebrity nonsense has been his downfall. Similar to Paul Gascoine in a lot of ways.

Michael

05-04-2012
16:27:00

He sounds perfect for the Melbourne Rebels

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