OFF-THE-FIELD matters drained former Worcester Warriors prop Matt Mullan’s motivation to play rugby and recover from his injury according to Wasps boss Dai Young.

Last week the Coventry club announced that Mullan, who has been sidelined since undergoing knee surgery in May 2018 had been released from his contract.

The 31-year-old made 128 appearances for Wasps since joining from Warriors in the summer of 2013.

Speaking to Coventry Live Young said Mullan “felt it best to cut ties” with the Ricoh Arena outfit.

"Matt has got a number of things off the field that needs his attention and focus," Young said.

"And in doing that pretty much drained his motivation to play rugby or get back from his injury.

"So Matt felt it was best to have a clean break from that and we agreed.

"People forget that players have personal lives. And things happen in personal lives that people have to spend a lot of their focus and energy on to put it back on the track they want it to go down.

"Rugby very quickly came second behind that and he hasn't got the same motivation as he's had in the past.

"Matt felt it best to cut ties with us and have a break. But who knows what he'll do in the future. He goes with our best wishes."

Young added: "There were no fall outs or anything like that, it was just changes in his personal life that needed his attention.

"He didn't have the motivation then really to give rugby his full focus and felt it was better to cut ties and that's what we did.”