Domachowski opens up on mental health battle before Scarlets debut against former club Cardiff

Corey Domachowski has admitted he was forced to put on a front to hide serious mental health struggles during more than two years of injury misery, as the Wales prop prepares to face his former club Cardiff Rugby on the opening weekend of the URC season at Llanelli this Saturday.

The 11-cap tighthead, who joined the Scarlets this summer after more than a decade and 135 appearances at Cardiff, says the prolonged spell on the sidelines pushed him to a breaking point he had never previously encountered in his career.

“I will be honest with you, I did really struggle,” Domachowski said. “Being the type of person I am, always full of energy, laughing and joking, it did become a point where it was forced because I didn’t want to show people that I was struggling through the injuries. I wouldn’t even speak to my family and tell them I was struggling. It came to a point where I had to because it was ruining my life. My head was in the shed with it all.”

The timing made the experience particularly difficult to process. Domachowski had just reached the peak of his career, making his Wales debut in the summer of 2023, featuring at that autumn’s Rugby World Cup, and playing through the following Guinness Six Nations, before injuries began to accumulate.

“It happened at a time where I was probably achieving the most I had in my career, so it was tough to take,” he said. “You are in every day doing your rehab, but it can still become a lonely place, especially when you see other boys returning to play and you’ve still got weeks or months to go.”

Beyond the physical setbacks, Domachowski acknowledges that fear began to creep into his game as he attempted to return. “When I was coming back from injury I wasn’t really enjoying it as much as I had because I was a bit nervous of giving everything and my body falling apart again. Rugby is one of those games you can’t play at 90 per cent, you have got to give everything. That’s what I found I was lacking.”

That realisation was ultimately what drove his decision to leave Cardiff and seek a new environment with the Scarlets. The Rhondda-born prop says the experience, though painful, has reshaped him.

“It’s all about the character. It’s built me into the person I am today. I learned from those things. If I get injured again, I will definitely take a different route to what I took.”

Now fit and with his enthusiasm for the game restored, Domachowski faces an immediate and emotionally charged test as the Scarlets host Cardiff in Llanelli to open the BKT URC campaign.