The mental health of NRL players living through the COVID-19 season shutdown is front of mind for coaches.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart tells James Willis he’s keeping in touch with all of his players in an effort to keep them motivated and challenged.

“It’s uncharted waters for all of us… it’s something we’ll probably never ever experience again.

“My main message to the players every time I do speak to them… I’m talking about mentally keeping themselves stimulated and finding routine and making sure that they’re healthy.

“There’s a couple of little concepts that we’ve put in place to make sure that we are really protecting the player that shows a red flag and making sure that we’re looking after his welfare.

“We’ve had a few of those, and we do everything we can to make sure… we look after the welfare of the whole team.”

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Image: Getty/ Quinn Rooney