News

Door remains open for Henson

July 30 2010

It seems the door has still yet to close on Gavin Henson as Ospreys boss Scott Johnson gave a warming invitation to the former Lions star.

Wales international Henson has been on unpaid leave since April of last year when he turned his back on the game due to personal reasons.

But despite the 28-year-old deciding not to show up for pre-season training at the Liberty Stadium outfit, Johnson has still offered him a way back.

"When he's willing to come and talk about rugby my door's open," he said, speaking to BBC Sport Wales' The Back Page.

Henson has recently taken part in television's science show Human Guinea Pig doing such stunts as having 250,000 volts passed through a car that he was sitting in. Such activities have led to many speculating that the centre may be forging a path in the non-rugby market, a prospect has not fazed Director of Rugby Johnson.

"I think that he made a decision last year and we left it on good terms in the fact that when he was prepared to, if he wanted to play footy, come back knocking on our door and that hasn't happened yet," he continued.

"So it's not disappointing. He's got other issues in his life and we've discussed that at the time and I take that as life hasn't changed.

"Life moves on, you know, and you've got to and I've got another quite a number of players I've got to look after and if Gavin wants to come back and talk about rugby, well our door's open.

"At that stage and at this stage it hasn't occurred so I've got responsibilities to others.

"From our perspective, like I said, the last meeting I had with Gav everything was laid on the table and he needed to do things in his life.

"We appreciate that and part of that is privacy and I'm not one of those people that need to go back.

"If Gavin wants to come back and talk to us, the door's open and he's been an Osprey since the inception.

"We honour that so we don't need to sit on someone's back an annoy them. The lad made a decision for personal reasons and we'll respect that.

"And until a conversation that comes differently, we don't give him another thought because we can't - it would show disrespect for the current group that are here.

"But at no time have we shown disrespect to Gavin. So the door's open, but we haven't heard anything.

"I had a conversation with Gavin. I will honour my part of it and I'll let the lad honour his and I'll respect his privacy and his wishes.

"I coach the kid. When he's willing to come and talk about rugby my door's open so at the end of the day we get on with our work and that's what we've got to do."