'None of us had heard from him': May on LRZ's emotional club exit

Two weeks have passed since former Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit shocked the rugby world by confirming his immediate departure to join the NFL's International Player Pathway, and his fledgling American football career is already well underway.

It was a move that caught Wales coach Warren Gatland completely off guard just an hour before he was set to name his Wales squad for the Guinness Six Nations, but the Kiwi was not the only person to be left stunned by the revelation.

Rees-Zammit's former Gloucester teammate Jonny May recently recounted the 22-year-old's exit just days after scoring against Edinburgh in the Challenge Cup. In his column for the Six Nations website, the former England winger said how the club assumed the Welshman had been given the week off after his no-show on Monday, before he came in to give an emotional farewell.

"We came back into training on a Monday following an away game in Edinburgh – in which Zam had played well and scored a great solo try – and he wasn’t there," May wrote.

"None of us had heard from him. We thought he may have been given a week off, because we’ve been rotating, but then Skivs [head coach George Skivington] said “Zam’s going to come in and talk to you all”.

"He was quite emotional when he spoke, saying it was the toughest decision he’s ever had to make, but that his days as a Gloucester player were over. Now he’s gone, and it’s weird not having him at the club every day."

Footage emerged last week of Rees-Zammit in his 10-week training camp in Miami, where he has until April to be recruited by a team in time for the next NFL season in August.

This has all unfolded remarkably quickly, and May's account only shows how this move caught everyone in the game out.