A sports psychologist says only one person can really help Zac Guildford make the right choice - and that is Zac Guildford.
That choice must be to give up drinking, sports psychologist Gary Hermansson said yesterday.
The debate over the future of Guildford continued yesterday as the player remained in Rarotonga, where he is on holiday and for the wedding of Hawkes Bay club rugby player Jarrod McCarthy.
The wedding is due to take place today.
Hermansson, who is a psychologist with the International Rugby Academy, said the winger has obviously had an eventful recent past and that was having an impact on him.
"Some tragic things have happened to him in the past few years. He got into the All Blacks quite quickly and then played some good games but was then manoeuvered out of the All Blacks, which he may not have quite come to grips with," he said.
"Losing his dad, who was obviously important in his life, was obviously an impact and all these things which come together means he is at a crossroads.
"But he needs to confront it himself. If he doesn't then he could be looking back at something in terms of his career and being a rugby player which he has just wasted away."
Hermansson said people could be brought in to support Guildford but people in teams do not want to act as caretakers. That was why it was important for Guildford to solve the problem himself.
"You can't stop people drinking if they don't want to stop drinking themselves. How many times does he have to keep doing this before he realises that it is about himself?"
Hermansson said there were many instances where people eventually realised the only way to get over the problem with alcohol was to simply not get involved with it. He wondered if Guildford had reached that point yet.
Although he did not know the full story, it looked plain and simply as though Guildford just had to give up alcohol.
He said, if anything, Guildford should have felt comfortable in the All Blacks squad. Once he left that controlled environment there was always the potential for problems to occur.
It would be useful for Guildford to get the help he needed but in the end it was about personal responsibility.
No-one but Guildford knew what was going on inside him, so he was the only one who could solve it.
