The 31-year-old sportsman as forced to call time on his career earlier this year due to a back injury and though the former Leicester Tigers star was “gutted” to be hanging up his boots at a relatively young age, he’s thankful he can now prioritise his loved ones.

He told Rugby World magazine: “Obviously I would have liked to have played for significantly longer.

"But I also wasn’t content to sacrifice my ability to do my first job, which is to be a dad and help out at home.

“And my back over the last year or so has taken away a lot of my ability to do that.

“So it’s a strange one because on the one hand, I’m super upset or gutted to not be able to play more but equally I’m happy that I can commit more to my family, which is my priority.”

Anthony knows he faces a long battle back to full fitness but he’s relieved he isn’t also having to contend with the pressure of being ready to get back out on the pitch.

He said: “It will be a fairly long battle to be at absolute 100 per cent.

“But I’ve had similar battles before with my Achilles and other stuff.

“So I know what I need to do and at least I don’t have the time pressure and all the external pressures of having to get back fit for this game or being as close to 100 per cent as possible to potentially come back early.

“I’m pretty comfortable with how I’m going to approach it.

“And as I sit here right now, I’m just happy that I can sit down and not be in excruciating pain. So, yeah, I take all the wins I can get.”